^ 


:"s,^--' 


M  !Eiistor^  of 

BY 

EDWIX   EMERSOxV,  Jr. 

Member  of  the   American    Historical    Association,    New   York 

Historical   Society,    Franklin   Institute  of   Philadelphia, 

Honorary     Member     of    the     RoyaJ     Philo- 

Historica]  Society  of  Bavaria,  etc.;  etc. 


WITH    AN    INTRODUCTION    BY 
GEORG    GOTTFRIED   GERVINLS 


ILLUSTRATED   WITH    SIXTEEN*    COLORED    PLATES    AND 

THIRTY-TWO  FULL-PAGE,  HALF-TONE  CUTS 

AND    TWO    MAPS 


7iV  THREE   VOLUMES— VOLUME   C.XE 
# 


NEW    YORK 
P.    F.    COLLIFR    AND    SON 
M  C  M  1  1 


304 


COPYRIGHT,  1900 
Bv  EDWIN    EMERSON,  Jr. 


Tj   ^  ^ 

£  53 


CONTENTS 


VOLUME  ONE 
Thk  Napoleonic  Bra 


VOLUME  TWO 
The  Middle  Period 


VOLUME  THREE 
The  Modern  Age ...__ 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

VOLUME  ONE 


FULL  PAGES  IN  COLOR 

The  Battle  of  Trafalgar.     Painted  by  C.  Stanfield Frontispiece 

"Friedland,   1807."     Painted  by  B.  Meissonier 

The  Retreat  from  Moscow.      Painted  by  E.  Meissonier 

The  Battle  op  Lake  Erie.     Painted  by  J.  0.  Davidson „. 

The  Sunken  Road  at  Waterloo.     Painted  by  Stanley  Berkley — 

FULL  PAGES  IN  BLACK  AND  WHITE 


Goethe  in  Weimar.     Painted  by  Willielm  Kaulbach 

Queen  Louise.     Painted  by  G.  Richter ",. 

Napoleon  at  Wagram.     Painted  by  Horace  Vernet 

Wellington.     Painted  by  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence 

Congress  op  Vienna.     Painted  by  J.  Tsabey , 

Napoleon  on  Board  the  Bellerophon.     Painted  by  W.  Q.  Orchardsou . 


/  j^  OR    invaluable    assistance    received    the    author    desires    to 
^  express    his    indebtedness    to    Messrs.    Andrew    D.     White, 

Datus  C.  Brooks,  Maurice  Magnus,  Waldemar  Kaempffert, 
William  G.  Brown,  and  to  the  most  faithful  of  his  helpmates 
—  his  wife.  Grateful  acknotoledgment  for  professional  courtesies 
is  also  rendered  to  the  officers  of  the  Public  Libraries  of 
New  York  and  Boston,  of  the  American  Congressional  Library, 
British  Museum,  and  Paris  Library,  a^  well  as  to  the  libra- 
rians of  the  Universities  of  Harvard  and  Columbia  and  of 
the    Historical    Society    of   New     York. 


A  HISTORY  OF  THE 
NINETEENTH    CENTURY 


NAPOLEONIC  ERA 


PREFACE 


A  SURVEY  of  the  last  century  reveals  it  as  an  age 
of  some  great  men  and  many  marvellous  achieve- 
ments. As  the  achievements  exceed  the  giants  of 
the  age  in  number,  so,  too,  they  surpass  them  in 
grandeur.  All  the  restless  activity  of  a  Napoleon 
or  the  iron  policy  of  a  Bismarck  have  not  wrought 
upon  modern  life  as  did  the  steam  engine.  The 
great  inventions  and  their  adaptation  to  the  needs 
of  humanity  are  the  real  glories  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century. 

Thus  new  epochs  in  the  development  of  man  have 
been  brought  about  by  our  modern  modes  of  transit 
and  transportation,  our  steam  cars  and  boats,  electric 
motors,  bicycles  and  automobile  vehicles,  as  well  as 
our  new  modes  of  communication  by  means  of  the 
electric  telegraph,   telephone  and  phonograph. 

Human  life,  as  it  exists  now  among  civilized  com- 
munities, owes  still  more,  perhaps,  to  our  new  labor- 
saving  machines  and  devices.  Of  these,  our  various 
agricultural  implements,  our  sewing  machines,  type- 
writers and  printing  presses  are  but  instances. 
The  comforts  of  life  have  been  immeasurably  in- 
creased by  the  universal  adoption  of   things   now 

(9) 


10  PREFACE 

termed  common  and  indispensable,  such  as  friction 
matches,  gas  lighting,  electric  light  and  appliances, 
or  steel  pens — as  well  as  modern  methods  of  heating, 
plumbing  and  construction.  Among  the  esthetic 
gains  of  mankind  attained  during  this  same  cent- 
ury must  be  reckoned  such  results  of  the  study  of 
light  as  photography  or  the  kindred  processes  of 
photo-engraving,  electrotyping,  lithography,  color 
printing  and  similar  new  methods  of   illustration. 

The  modern  study  of  light  has  resulted  in  other 
scientific  achievements  of  lasting  importance,  nota- 
bly our  knowledge  of  the  velocity  of  light.  Spec- 
trum Analysis  and  the  Roentgen  Rays.  In  the 
study  of  medicine,  to  which  this  last  invention  has 
been  principally  applied,  a  new  era  may  be  said 
to  date  from  the  use  of  anaesthetics  and  antiseptics, 
first  adopted  during  the  middle  of  the  last  century. 
A  similar  impulse  to  the  theoretical  study  of  medi- 
cine has  been  given  by  the  discovery  of  the  func- 
tions of  the  blood  corpuscles,  the  cell  theory  in 
embryology,  and  the  germ  theory.  Of  like  impor 
tance  to  science  are  such  scientific  discoveries  as  the 
correspondence  between  heat  and  energy,  the  theory 
of  gases,  of  molecules  and  of  atmospheric  dust,  the 
nebular  and  meteoric  theories  in  astronomy,  and  the 
determination  of  geological  epochs  resulting  indi- 
rectly in  Darwin's  theory  of  the  Evolution  of  Spe- 
cies and  the  Origin  of  Man.  War  has  been  made 
more  terrible  by  such  instruments  of  destruction  as 
torpedoes,  rifled  firearms,  machine  guns,  smokeless 
powder,  lyddite  and  melmite. 

So   much   for    a    single    century's    achievements 


PREFACE  11 

in  science.  They  outnumber  the  great  inventions 
of  all  the  previous  centuries  within  historic  times. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  some  other  triumphs  of 
the  past  century — notably  of  Music.  No  less  has 
been  accomplished  in  some  other  arts.  The  great 
masterpieces  in  painting  of  the  late  Middle  Ages  and 
the  Renaissance  have  been  rivalled  in  this  century 
by  the  artists  of  France,  England  and  other  modern 
schools. 

Unlike  Music  and  the  Fine  Arts,  the  march  of 
Modern  Literature  has  been  along  national  lines.  It 
was  a  far  cry  from  Haydn  to  Wagner,  or  from  David 
to  Millet,  yet  it  seems  no  further  than  the  intervals 
of  intellect  that  lie  between  Keats  and  Kipling, 
Kant  and  Nietzsche,  Schiller  and  Sudermann, 
Pushkin  and  Tolstoi,  Alfieri  and  Annunzio,  or 
Chateaubriand  and  Zola. 

The  years  between  the  men  representing  these 
two  extremes  of  various  literary  developments  are 
filled  with  illustrious  names.  Well  could  Browning 
sing: 

"And  did  you  once  see  Shelley  plain, 
And  did  he  stop  and  speak  to  you, 
And  did  you  speak  to  him  again  ? 
How  strange  it  seems,  and  new  1" 

What  is  true  ol  the  Letters  and  Art  is  true  of 
almost  every  other  phase  of  human  attainment  ia 
ihe  Nineteenth  Century.  Since  Napoleon,  Nelson, 
Pitt  and  Wellington,  down  to  Garibaldi,  Cavour, 
Kossuth,  Bismarck,  Moltke,  Gladstone  and  Krue- 
ger,  there  has  been  a  constant  succession  of  famous 
captains,  sailors,  statesmen,  philosophers,  inventors 


12  PREFACE 

and  other  great  men,  whose  biographies  alone  would 
fill  many  more  volumes  than  this  history. 

It  is  the  pride  of  Americans  that  their  hemisphere 
has  contributed  its  share,  and  over,  to  the  sum-total 
accomplished  by  the  world  since  the  death  of  Wash- 
ington. In  the  roll-call  of  the  great  men  of  this  age 
few  names  stand  forth  more  brightly  than  those  of 
Jefferson,  Bolivar,  Lincoln,  Grant,  Farragut  and 
Lee,  or  those  of  Fulton,  Ericsson,  Morse,  Edison, 
Diaz  and  Dewey. 

Considerations  such  as  these  have  entered  largely 
into  the  preparation  of  this  work.  To  them  must 
be  ascribed  the  apparent  preponderance  given  to 
the  part  played  by  America  in  the  history  of  the 
world  during  the  Nineteenth  Century.  When  a 
similar  work  was  undertaken  by  Gervinus,  the 
great  German  historian,  he  laid  the  responsibility 
for  modern  statecraft  and  ideals  of  government  at 
the  feet  of  America.  Had  he  lived  to  complete  his 
work,  his  pen  might  have  traced  the  great  story 
of  the  rise  of  nations  during  the  last  fifty  years. 
Since  the  great  civil  war,  which  established  the 
union  of  the  North  American  States,  the  world  has 
seen  the  rise  of  a  national  Italy,  Japan,  Germany 
and  the  Slavic  States,  and  of  colonial  empires,  like 
those  of  India,  Australia  and  Africa.  The  attempt 
of  the  small  Boer  Republic  to  start  a  similar  national 
movement  in  South  Africa  could  not  have  failed  to 
impress  an  observer  like  Gervinus  as  but  another 
inevitable  symptom  of  the  times.  He  it  was,  too, 
who  predicted  the  opening  of  the  Far  East  as  a  re- 
sult of  these  modern  tendencies. 


PREFACE  13 

The  Empire  of  Japan,  since  it  faced  about  to 
adopt  the  latest  benefits  of  Western  civilization,  has 
indeed  become  the  Land  of  the  Rising  Sun.  Of  her 
eastern  neighbors  across  the  China  Sea,  on  the  other 
hand,  Matthew  Arnold's  lines  on  the  Alexandrian 
conquest  still  hold  true: 

"The  brooding  East  with  awe  beheld 
Her  impious  younger  world. 
The  Eoman  tempest  swell 'd  and  swell'd. 
And  on  her  head  was  huri'd. 

"The  East  bow'd  low  before  the  blast 
In  patient,  deep  disdain: 
She  let  the  legions  thunder  past, 
And  plunged  in  thought  again.'' 

Matthew  Arnold's  as  well  as  Gervinus'  predic- 
tion, strangely  enough,  has  been  fulfilled  at  the 
very  close  of  the  Nineteenth  Century.  Now  that 
the  century  has  ended,  the  eyes  of  men  have 
turned  from  the  new  world  in  America  to  a  newer 
world   in   ancient  China. 

Edwin  Emerson,  Jb. 

New  York,  December,  1900. 


AN   INTRODUCTION 


HISTORY  OF  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

BY  GBORG  GOTTFRIED  GERVINUS 
(Translated  by  Maurice  Magnus) i 


THE   HISTOEY  of  the  European  States  dur- 
ing the  Christian  Bra  forms  as  inseparable  a 
whole  as  that  of  the  Greek   Peninsula   and 
its  colonies  in  Antiquity.      In  both  eras  the  same  Forms  of 

■^        ''  Law  and 

forms  of  law  and  order  are  revealed  in  their  course  chrfstiaa 
of  inner  development.  These  laws  are  the  same  Antiquity 
which  repeat  themselves  at  large  in  the  history  of 
the  entire  human  race.  From  the  despotism  of  the 
Orient  to  the  aristocratic  States  of  Antiquity  and 
the  Middle  Ages,  founded  on  slavery  and  serfdom, 
and  from  them  to  the  policy  of  the  Western  States 
still   in  development,   there  is   a   regular   progress 

'  This  famous  essay  was  written  as  an  introduction  to  Gervinus's 
projected  history  of  the  Nineteenth  Century.  He  was  then  a  pro- 
fessor of  history  at  Heidelberg.  As  soon  as  the  pamphlet  appeared, 
in  1853,  Gervinus  was  placed  on  trial  for  high  treason.  He  declined 
to  plead  in  his  own  behalf.  In  behalf  of  his  work  he  declared  in 
court:  "The  charge,  though  it  appears  directed  against  me,  is  in  fact 
an  accusation  against  Providence,  or  let  us  say  History^  which  can- 
not be  condemned." — Gervinus  was  convicted  and  sentenced  to  four 
months  in  prison  and  his  work  was  burned.  The  "Introduction" 
immediately  became  a  classic  in  Germany  and  throughout  Europe. 

(15) 


16  INTRODUCTION 

Rise  and     of  intellectual  and  civil  freedom — first  from  one  to 

l>ecliiie  of 

^^'^^  that  of  the  few,  and  from  them  to  all.  But  where 
States  have  completed  their  cycle  of  existence  one 
may  again  observe  from  the  height  of  their  develop- 
ment a  corresponding  decline  of  culture,  of  freedom 
and  power,  from  the  many  to  the  few,  and  from 
them  to  one  alone. 

It  is  this  law  which  is  found  in  every  part  of  his- 
tory, in  every,  mature  independent  State,  likewise 
in  the  group  of  States  mentioned  above.  England, 
notably  in  its  later  development,  has  given  the  pat- 
tern of  a  mixed  constitution.  William  Pitt,  one  of 
England's  greatest  statesmen,  found  the  chief  value 
of  the  unwritten  constitution  in  its  preservation  of 
all  the  different  forms  of  government — monarchy, 
aristocracy  and  democracy — while  avoiding  the  evils 
of  each. 
fn|io-sax-  Those  advanced  views  on  policy  and  religion, 
tutions  -which  some  intuitive  and  prophetic  minds  held 
in  Germany  at  the  beginning  of  the  Reformation, 
were  not  really  realized  until  the  establishment  of 
the  American  Constitution.  Certain  changes  had 
been  effected  in  the  English  Constitution  which 
led  to  a  similar  end,  but  in  a  different  way — that 
of  realizing  existing  circumstances  and  gaining  all 
from  them.  Both  in  England  and  America  popular 
government  worked  well — the  fortune,  power  and 
freedom  of  each  competing  for  a  prize  which  con- 
sisted in  the  glory  of  their  own  constitution. 
Th.»Enpiish  The  growth  of  the  Enerlish  Constitution  was  not 
'■"'"  the  outcome  of  a  regular  system.     But  those  who 

filled  out  the  inefficiencies  knew  how  to  do  the  work 


mrRODUCTION  17 

in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  their  own  views  into  evi- 
dence, and  yet  to  remain  in  harmony  with  their 
predecessors.  It  took  centuries  to  build  up  such 
a  constitution,  but  every  period  contributed  its  best 
material  and  labor. 

No  modern  State  has  passed  through  such  a  nor- 
mal history  as  England — the  different  phases  of  State 
development  have  nowhere  else  been  so  clearly 
defined.     The  old  Teutonic  constitution  under  the  Teutonic 

11  <•    11       T       Constitu- 

patriarchal  monarchy  appears  nowhere  so  fully  de-  t'oa 
veloped  as  with  the  Anglo-Saxons;  and  no  race  has 
left  such  treasures  of  law  books  and  literature  of  its 
first  period  of  State  formation.  The  feudal  system 
was  nowhere  so  finished  and  perfect  from  its  begin- 
ning, nor  so  strong  and  lasting  for  such  a  period 
of  time,  as  in  Normanic  England;  no  other  aris- 
tocracy has  shown  itself  as  capable  as  the  English, 
Eoyal  despotism  has  nowhere  else  used  its  powers, 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  with  so  much  benevo- 
lence, nor  shown  itself  so  reluctant  to  use  its  pre- 
rogatives as  in  England.     In  no  other  country  than  anlth"'** 

Nobility 

England,  in  fine,  have  the  people  so  strengthened 
the  State  with  their  individual  force  and  also  gained 
so  much  political  influence.  Thus,  when  the  con- 
stitution was  to  be  amended  in  1688,  no  one  could 
be  found  to  suggest  even  a  curtailment  or  an  omis- 
sion of  the  existing  elements  of  State — all  having 
proved  their  utility.  The  people  were  not  envious 
of  the  large  estates  of  the  nobility  which  the  repub- 
lic wanted  to  divide  by  an  Agrarian  law.  They  felt 
secure  in  their  industry,  to  the  large  development 
of   which  they  had  been   driven  by  the  fact  that 


18  INTRODUCTION 

the  land  was  almost  exclusively  in  the  hands  of  the 
nobles.  And  again  the  nobility  willingly  granted 
to  the  people  a  share  in  their  privileges.  The  State 
fostered  their  industries  as  well  as  their  increasing 
power  in  the  lower  House  of  Parliament.  They 
knew  then  how  indispensable  taxes  and  credit  were 
to  the  State.  In  their  leisure,  and  knowledge  of 
State  affairs,  the  great  nobles  felt  secure  of  their 
influence.  The  two  classes  were  not  separated  by 
the  advantages  or  disadvantages  of  birth,  but  were 
united  by  family  ties;  their  interests  were  not 
politically  opposed,  but  each  formed  a  body  of  men 
divided  only  by  the  natural  differences  of  political 
purpose  for  which  they  were  formed.  Both  classes 
agreed  in  the  expedient  of  a  monarchical  head  over 
three  united  states,  at  that  time  without  a  common 
uonV^on*  legislation.  Accordingly  they  retained  the  mon- 
wchy°°'  archy,  restricting  only  some  of  the  royal  privileges. 
The  monarchy  in  return  received  the  throne  from 
Parliament,  and  thereby  renounced  its  claim  to  di- 
vine origin.  Therewith  fell  all  royal  claims  to 
special  rights  above  the  rights  of  others.  The  po- 
sition of  the  King,  Lords  and  People  rather  rested 
on  the  basis  of  an  acquired  and  acknowledged  right, 
and  each  saw  in  the  right  of  others  a  confirmation 
of  their  own.  In  this  they  remained  faithful  to  the 
character  of  those  times  when  revolutions  were  only 
undertaken  in  defence  of  thosQ  that  were  wronged — 
or  to  restore  ancient  rights. .^'T he  well-balanced  in- 
fluences of  these  powers  of  the  State,  the  manly  and 
political  character  of  those  in  administration,  de- 
pended  upon  the  equality  of  their  rights.      Their 


INTRODUCTION  19 

different  callings  acted  as  a  safeguard  against  politi- 
cal degeneration,  which,  according  to  Aristotle,  is 
produced  by  appropriating  the  oflSces  of  State 
to  serve  individual  purposes  on  the  narrow  ideas 
of  rank. 

It  is  in  this  mixed  constitution  that  the  different 
classes  of  the  people  appear  side  by  side,  each  pos- 
sessed of  peculiar  privileges;  while  the  elements 
are  so  thoroughly  blended  that  History  stands  up 
and  points  to   the  English  Commonwealth  as  her'^'^^^Jo'^:. 

r  D  moD  wealth 

masterpiece.  It  is  the  constitutional  form  of  the 
State  in  its  most  perfect  and  natural  development — 
where  the  constitution  has  continued  through  all 
ages,  where  no  essential  has  been  lost  in  the  material 
of  its  history,  where  the  old  customs  by  a  wonderful 
adjustment  have  been  adapted  to  the  wants  of  the 
new,  while  the  experience  of  a  mature  political 
science  has  been  superadded.  Where  one  will  dis- 
cover in  it  the  perfection  of  the  old  Anglo-Saxon, 
another  will  discern  the  perfection  of  the  class 
institutions  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  separation  into  corporate  bodies  is  still  re- 
tained in  English  habits  of  life,  in  their  society, 
as  well  as  in  the  constitution.  The  different  classes 
and  powers  of  the  State,  with  their  respective  inter- 
ests, resemble  great  blocks  of  stone  wherewith  the 
edifice  of  the  State  is  constructed  with  extraordinary 
solidity.  It  is  hard  to  tell  which  of  the  two  gives 
the  particular  character  form  and  name.  If  we  con- 
sider the  prerogatives  of  the  government,  the  royal 
veto,  the  power  and  strength  which  it  lends  in  the 
relations  with  foreign  powers,  we  feel  as  if  the  State 


90  INTRODUCTION 

were  monarchical..  If  we  view  the  Church,  which 
with  a  royal  pope  at  its  head  endeavors  to  effect  a 
national  standard  in  matters  of  faith,  as  Catholicism 
endeavors  to  effect  general  conformity,  we  stumble 
on  the  theocratic  element.  If  we  survey  the  whole 
public  spirit,  the  conservative  nature  of  its  policy, 
the  character  of  those  to  whom  the  administration 

cSftoms  '^  intrusted,  the  privileges,  customs  and  habits  of 
the  representatives  of  this  people,  the  English  State 
appears  essentially  aristocratic.  If  we  reflect  that 
the  consent  of  the  people  is  required  for  their  own 
taxation,  the  chief  influence  seems  to  reside  in  the 
community  at  large.  So,  too,  if  we  still  further 
examine  the  institutions  and  relations  of  society 
in  detail — the  activity  and  independence  of  private 
life,  the  decentralization  of  the  administration,  the 
self-government  of  the  people,  the  absence  of  bu- 
reaucracy, the  entire  freedom  of  person  and  prop- 
erty, the  system  of  the  land  defences,  the  rights  of 
meeting  and  of  the  press,  everything  seems  to  be 
democratic.  It  is  likewise  pure  democracy  that  the 
chief  power  should  reside  in  the  Commons,  and 
that  the  people   by  controlling  the  crown  through 

Democ-      its  Parliament   should  assert  its  own   sovereignty. 

racy  v»  °      -^ 

Monarchy  y^^  qq  people  spcak  less  of  their  sovereign  power 
than  the  English,  or  have  a  more  genuine  loyalty 
for  their  monarchy.  No  State  depends  more  upon 
the  traditions  of  the  past  and  no  people  insist  more 
on  aristocratic  conservatism.  It  is  the  Englishman's 
boast  that  his  constitution  is  open  to  all  progress, 
and  is  plastic  to  the  influence  of  every  great  idea, 
every  experience  and  every  demand  of  necessity. 


INTRODUCTION  21 

No  one  is  more  jealous  than  the  Englishman 
of  the  safety  of  his  person  and  property  from  the 
usurpations  of  the  State;  yet  there  is  no  State 
of  modern  times  constructed  more  on  the  model 
of  antiquity,  where  the  individual  lived  for  the 
State,  and  sacrificed  to  it  his  personal  will  and 
private  interests.  This  gives  an  exclusive  narrow  j^^ce  Wi- 
self-interest  and  strictly  national  character  to  the"^^ 
English  nation.  Still,  no  people  have  proved  them- 
selves more  capable  of  showing  regard  and  forbear- 
ance toward  foreign  nations,  even  in  their  defeat. 
These  reconciled  contradictions,  this  varied  unity 
and  continued  harmony  resulting  from  the  happy 
mixture  in  the  character  of  the  people  and  the  ex- 
ternal  State  institutions  are   the   actual  worth  and  Essence  of 

British  In- 

merit  of  the  English  State  policy,  the  source  of  its  stitutions 
power  and  the  pledge  of  its  freedom.  This  com- 
pound nature  is  also  the  reason  why  it  is  theoreti- 
cally difficult  to  comprehend  and  to  do  justice  to 
this  State  and  its  institutions,  and  why,  practically, 
it  has  remained  without  a  true  counterpart  in  spite 
of  many  copies. 

This  constitution,  in  truth,  is  not  fit  to  be  a 
formula  for  any  other  State.  It  may  only  serve  as 
a  model  to  a  people  of  equally  strong  patriotic 
feeling,  and  desirous  of  making  the  same  use  of 
old  and  new  institutions,  a  people  capable  of  form- 
ing a  constitution  that  would  be  in  its  nature  and 
attributes  the  same,  equal  in  worth  to  the  English, 
yet  most  unlike  it  in  form. 

The  English  democracy  in  the  time  of  the  first 
Stuarts  had  already  begun  to  turn  their  attention 


22  INTRODUCTION 

toward  emigration.  They  hoped  that  on  the  free 
soil  of  America,  unperplexed  by  monarchical  and 
aristocratic  privileges,  habits  and  power,  they  might 
raise  the  edifice  of  a  new  State  and  a  new  Church 

Tendencies  in  their  own  simple  style.  Shortly  after  the  time 
when  Spain  had  lost  her  influence  in  Europe  by  her 
successive  defeats  in  the  wars  with  Germany,  the 
Netherlands,  and  England,  a  Teutonic  element  set- 
tled in  the  north  of  Spanish-America  imbued  with 
the  desire  not  to  permit  Spain  and  the  Catholic 
Church  to  rule  absolutely  in  the  New  World. 
Nowhere  else  were  the  habits  and  character  of 
Teutonic  and  Romanic  culture  in  more  striking 
contrast  than  in  the  drama  of  the  new  life  which 
unfolded  itself  here. 

In  the  vast  tracts  of  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese 
colonies  the  old  spirit  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  ex- 
pressed in  all  its  original  barbarity  and  its  degra- 

Conquests  Nation  of  mankind.  Spanish  despotism  with  the 
narrow  spirit  of  its  religion  was  here  transplanted — 
a  ready-made  hierarchy  with  all  its  external  pomp 
and  inward  crudeness,  and  in  its  train  a  feudal  aris- 
tocracy bent  on  conquest,  covetous  and  inhuman. 
There  mercantile  industry  and  mental  activity  were 
excluded,  while  conformity  in  Church  and  State, 
under  which  both  Indian  and  negro  suffered,  spread 
over  this  part  of  the  New  World.  The  reverse  took 
place  in  the  north.  Since  the  beginning  of  the 
Seventeenth  Century  people  of  the  Teutonic  races, 
chiefly  Germans,  Dutch,  Swedes,  and  English,  the 
latter  of  the  Saxon  blood,  gathered  here.  They 
were   for  the  most  part  Protestants  of  the  clearest 


INTRODUCTION  2^ 

dye,  notably  Puritans  and  Quakers.  No  viceroy 
with  monarchical  institutions  was  admitted  here. 
On  the  contrary  a  true  republican  spirit  prevailed 
among  the  colonists,  and  not  only  among  those  who^jj^jj^^ 
had  emigrated  without  royal  consent,  but  even  with  "^^^^^ 
those  who  came  provided  with  charters  and  accom- 
panied by  governors.  The  hierarchy  never  reached 
iiere,  the  English  noble  and  the  Flemish  patrician 
only  made  feeble  and  short-lived  attempts  to  trans- 
plant their  institutions.  The  feudal  usages  and  all 
the  habits  of  the  Middle  Ages  were  behind  them 
'—the  New  Era  with  its  intellectual  growth,  with  its 
commercial  industry,  and  with  its  equality  of  rights 
had  sprung  into  being.  The  slow  natural  process  of 
development  into  a  national  life  lasting  centuries 
■was  a  matter  of  a  few  years  here.  Its  independence 
permitted  commerce  closely  to  follow  the  primeval 
occupations — bunting,  fishing  and  farming. 

The  emigrants  had  the  close  and  exclusive 
spirit  of  Teutonic  reserve  which  forbade  them  to 
form  connections  with  the  Indians,  whom  they  re- 
garded as  being  incapable  of  accepting  humanity.  ^^^^.^  ^.^ 
Withal  they  were  conscientious  enough  to  purchase  ^°"''^ 
the  land  fit  for  their  uses  from  the  natives,  instead 
of  taking  possession  of  the  country  as  a  grant  from 
the  Pope.  In  contrast  to  the  conformity  of  the  one 
dominion  of  Spanish-America,  a  varied  world  com- 
posed of  numerous  petty  States  grew  up  here,  and 
its  diversity  was  a  singularly  apt  expression  of  the 
conditions  of  the  south  and  the  north  before  the 
emigration  from  Europe. 

The  Spaniards,    coming   from    vast  domains    at 


24  INTRODUCTION 

home,  found  great  Indian  States  already  established 
in  Mexico  and  Peru.  It  was  therefore  absolutely 
necessary  to  overthrow  these  with  an  extensive 
colonial  State  in  order  to  assert  their  authority. 

The  English  in  the  north,  who  had  come  few^  in 
numbers  and  wide  apart  in  time,  found  petty  tribes 
of  Indians  scattered  over  the  country — unconnected, 
weak  in  numbers  and  in  power.  The  colonists  were 
therefore  quite  free  to  follow  their  Teutonic  bent, 
European   living   apart  in  small  varied  communities.      Thus 

Prototypes  o       r 

Massachusetts  became  a  theocracy  on  the  pattern 
of  Geneva;  Maryland  a  feudal  princedom;  Carolina 
a  realm  of  eight  lordships  with  a  landed  aristocracy; 
Virginia  an  English  province  with  high-church  in- 
stitutions; Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  democra- 
cies; Pennsylvania  a  cosmopolitan  Quaker  republic, 
which  in  its  commencement  opened  an  asylum  to  the 
world;  and  New  Amsterdam  a  Flemish  town  with  a 
well-ordered  patrician  municipality.  In  their  gen- 
Engiish  eral  development  the  States  followed  England.  Un- 
dency  observed  in  the  beginning  they  formed  their  consti- 
tutions freely  according  to  their  demands.  During 
the  era  of  the  English  Commonwealth  the  spirit  of 
democracy  planted  itself  securely.  Under  the  Res- 
toration it  suffered*  much  injury  and  danger  to  self- 
government  and  property,  with  charters  and  privi- 
leges. After  1688  each  separate  State  returned  to 
its  previous  institutions.  Throughout  all  these  first 
varying  fortunes  of  the  colonies  it  may  be  remarked 
that  freedom  of  action  and  democratic  development 
continued  to  prosper.  This  can  only  be  attributed 
to  one  cause — that  those  institutions  which  hinder 


INTRODUCTION  21S 

the  progress  of  the  State  and  Church,  the  hierarchy 
and  the  aristocracy,  did  not  reach  them  from  Europe. 
They  prospered  exactly  in  proportion  as  the  one  re- 
maining engine  of  oppression — Monarchy — found  no 
occasion  or  opportunity  to  assert  itself.  That  the 
republican  spirit  of  the  colonists  would  rebel  against  Demo- 
any  free  exercise  of  Monarchy,  when  they  realized  Spirit 
its  inability  to  interfere  with  independence,  was  al- 
ready prophesied  by  certain  wise  men  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Eighteenth  Century.  The  principles  of 
the  first  emigrants,  their  customs  and  struggles,  had 
for  the  first  time  firmly  established  democracy.  The 
Puritans  had  fled  from  the  tyranny  of  Church  and 
State  in  Europe,  impelled  by  principle.  They  came 
to  America  determined  not  to  allow  the  home  gov- 
ernment to  lay  claim  to  the  possessions  they  had 
paid  for.  They  came,  after  the  example  of  the 
Greek  colonies,  to  maintain  free  and  general  inter- 
course with  the  mother  country,  but  resolved  to 
oppose  every  interference  in  their  government  and 
their  religion.  They  resented  any  attempt  at  legis- 
lation by  a  distant  Parliament  to  which  they  could 
send  no  representatives.  In  1646  Massachusetts  re- 
garded her  relations  with  England  in  the  same  light 
as  the  Hanseatic  towns  did  theirs  to  the  German 
empire,  and  this  fundamental  principle  of  indepen- Growth  d 
dence  increased  more  and  more  with  the  numbers  dence 
and  power  of  the  colonists.  The  same  spirit  of  de- 
mocracy, which  grew  so  rapidly  in  the  State,  entered 
also  into  the  affairs  of  the  Church,  where,  however, 
it  moved  slowly  and  not  without  hindrances.  Neces- 
sity decided  the  former  case,  but  the  latter  depended 

XTXth  Century— Yol.  1—2 


26  INTRODUCTION 

entirely  on  their  education  and  culture.  In  some 
few  States,  sucii  as  Carolina,  New  York,  and  Mary- 
land under  the  philanthropic  Lord  Baltimore,  all  re- 
ligions were  tolerated  from  the  beginning,  although 
equal  privileges  were  not  granted.  Virginia  still 
required  conformity  to  the  High  Church;  even 
amid  the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  Calvinistic  in- 
tolerance excluded  every  other  creed  from  the  State 
and  persecuted  the  Baptists  and  Quakers  by  exile 

Puritan  ^  *^ 

intoier-      and  executiou.     Roger  Williams,  in  accordance  with 


EQce 


this  principle,  urged  liberty  of  conscience  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  a  separation  of  Church  from  State  mat- 
ters. But  he  was  obliged  to  flee,  and  in  1636  he 
founded  a  small  new  society  in  Rhode  Island  on 
the  principles  of  entire  liberty  of  conscience  and  the 
uncontrolled  power  of  the  majority  in  civil  rights. 
This  also  became  the  constitution  of  Connecticut. 
Principles  and  theories  of  political  and  ecclesiastical 
freedom  were  here  brought  into  practice  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  a  small  community  before  they  were 
taught  in  the  schools  of  philosophy  in  Europe. 
It  was  prophesied  that  the  democratic  attempts  to 
obtain  universal  suffrage,  a  general  elective  fran- 
Reiigious    chise,  annual  elections,  entire  religious  freedom  and 

Tolerance  '  '  " 

the  Miltonic  right  of  schism  would  be  of  but  short 
duration.  But  these  institutions  have  not  only  main- 
tained themselves  here,  but  have  spread  from  these 
smallest  of  States  over  the  whole  Union.  They  su- 
perseded the  aristocratic  commencement  of  Carolina 
and  patrician  New  York,  the  high  church  of  Vir- 
ginia, the  theocracy  of  Massachusetts  and  the  mon- 
archy throughout  America.     They  have  given  laws 


INTRODUCTION  27 

to  a  continent,  and,  dreaded  for  their  moral  influ- 
ence, they  stand  in  the  background  of  every  demo- 
cratic struggle  of  Europe. 

The  purely  Saxon,  purely  democratic  constitution  ^heAmeri- 
of  the  United  States  stands  in  direct  antithesis  to*^"'"''°° 
the  Normanic-Saxon  constitution  of  England.  The 
Puritans  when  they  emigrated  brought  with  them 
ideas,  more  or  less  clearly  defined,  of  the  edifice  of 
their  constitution,  and  carried  them  into  practice 
without  hindrances.  The  last  completion  after  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  was  only  the  fulfilment 
of  the  first  thought.  No  antiquity,  no  tradition,  no 
history  or  experience  devised  a  plan  for  them  or  fet- 
tered them  to  existing  materials.  Aristocracy  aad 
hierarchy  were  left  behind  in  Europe;  the  royal  and 
parliamentary  government  of  England  was  rejected. 
Common-sense  and  the  natural  instincts  of  the  sim- 
plest consequence  led  here  to  the  completion  of  a 
new  edifice  in  a  rising  State,  apart  from  all  existing 
State  organizations.  They  ventured,  though  with 
admirable  prudence,  on  the  great  trial  of  extending 
it  over  an  immense  region,  in  spite  of  the  prophecies 
which,  in  their  small  beginnings,  promised  them 
only  a  temporary  success.  It  was  not  a  question  New  woria 
here  how  different  classes  might  be  brought  into 
relationship  with  one  another,  and  how  all  might 
enjoy  equal  rights.  In  the  first  outbreak  of  the 
Eevolution,  the  Americans  appealed  to  their  char- 
ters and  self-created  institutions  and  endeavored  to 
defend  them  as  conceded  rights,  but,  at  the  separa- 
tion, they  ceased  to  look  for  justification  for  their 
rebellion.     Had  they  still  urged  their  claim  to  ex- 


28  INTRODUCTION 

isting  relations,  they  would  have  had  to  begin  by 
acknowledgment  of  their  chief  relation  to  the  mother 
country,  which  they  were  on  the  point  of  exchang- 
ing for  independence.  They  scorned,  therefore,  to 
demand  rights  and  freedom  which  they  claimed 
natural  and  universal,  and  thus  acted  as  much  in 
conformity  with  the  earliest  principles  of  Protes- 
tantism aa  with  those  of  the  latest  theories,  which 
France  had  sent  into  the  world  a  short  time  before 
the  rebellion  of  the  colonies.     The  American  Bill 

The  BUI  of  q{  Rights  in  1776  began  with  an  acknowledgment 
of  the  natural  rights  of  man,  of  which  no  form  of 
government  can  deprive  him,  of  his  freedom  and 
independence,  his  claim  to  the  enjoyment  of  life 
and  liberty,  of  the  means  for  the  acquisition  of 
property  and  wealth,  and  for  the  attainment  of  for- 
tune and  safety.  The  people  were  entitled  to  change 
or  depose  any  government  which  denied  these  uni- 
versal rights  to  man,  by  which  clause  they  justified 
the  separation.  By  the  introduction  of  universal  suf- 
frage they  pronounced  the  great  democratic  maxim 
that  the  government  is  the  legal  expression  of  the 
people's  will.    This  did  not  produce  a  mixed  consti- 

suffrage*'  tution  composed  of  several  parts  united  into  one,  as 
in  England,  but  a  single  symmetrical  State-union  of 
the  utmost  simplicity.  It  is  not  the  skilful  adminis- 
tration of  the  many  different  elements  which  is  the 
boast  of  the  American  constitution,  but  the  perfect 
fulfilment  of  a  logical  sequence,  deduced  from  one 
single  principle — freedom,  or  the  right  to  obey  only 
the  law,  and  equality — the  duty  of  one  and  all  to 
obey  the  same  law.     There  was,  therefore,  no  neces- 


INTRODUCTION  29 

sity  to  level  ranks,  power,  pretensions,  iiifluence  or 
privileges,  as  there  only  existed  one  society  and 
one  class  from  which  all  particular  rights  and 
privileges  were  abolished.  Power,  which,  in  the 
hands  of  the  few,  has  often  led  to  arbitrary  rule, 
and,  in  the  hands  of  the  many,  to  privileges, 
was  equally  distributed  as  the  right  of  all.  C>neg}|^^^28o« 
right  insures  one  common  practice.  The  rich 
adopted  the  tone  of  the  middle  class,  to  which 
the  poor  aspired,  and  from  whose  customs  and  for 
whose  convenience  the  law  was  actually  made.  Old 
and  new  institutions  had  not  here  to  be  reconciled 
with  one  another  in  the  spirit  of  progression  or  con- 
servatism. Everything  in  this  State  of  the  Future 
is  new;  everything  is  already  in  progress  and  built 
upon  innovations.  The  picture  of  an  ancient  incor- 
porated State,  of  a  strict,  exclusive  nationality,  is 
not  presented  to  us,  but  a  society  originating  from 
all  parts  of  the  world,  with  the  greatest  adaptability 
of  government,  of  a  cosmopolitan  nature. 

The  North  American  Republic  is  not  one  great 
nation,  but  a  federal  union,  in  which  each  separate 
State  strives  to  obtain  the  sovereign  power,  while 
within  th^m  again  individuals  claim  the  utmost 
independence  of  the  government.  The  feeling  ofP^m^c^ 
individuality,  the  characteristic  feature  of  modern  "^^'^'^ 
times  and  of  Protestantism,  has  here  maintaiued  its 
rights.  The  State  exists  more  for  the  individual 
than  the  individual  for  the  State.  The  institutions 
of  the  State  are  in  the  service  of  personal  liberty. 
The  freedom  of  man  is  more  important  than  his 
duties  as  citizen.     The  widest  field  upon  which  the 


30  INTRODUCTION 

claims  of  man  and  the  claims  of  the  State  have 
contended,  and  yet  always  contend — the  Church — is 
here  entirely  withdrawn  from  the  State,  and  noth- 
ino-  remains  as  a  ground  on  which  to  legislate,  and 
concerning  which  the  government  and  the  individ- 
ual can  dispute,  but  general  principles.     The  pano- 

A  N«"       rama  of  a  new  State,  such  as  had  never  existed  be- 
st ate  ' 

fore,  lies  now  unrolled  before  us  after  an  interval 
of  one  hundred  years. 

This  new  State,  by  its  astonishing  achievements 
in  fortune  and  power,  has  suddenly  surpassed  all 
others,  and  the  boldest  political  ventures  have  suc- 
ceeded, in  spite  of  all  scejitics.  The  government  of 
the  people,  even  when  scattered  over  immeasurable 
tracts  of  country,  has  shown  itself  to  be  compatible 
with  order  and  prosperity.  An  apparently  impro- 
vised constitution  is  adapted  to  the  maintenance  of 
old,  confirmed  usages.  The  free  exercise  of  religion 
goes  with  piety;  the  reverse  of  military  pretensions 
with  a  warlike  spirit.  An  ever-increasing  popula- 
tion brought  together  by  haphazard  appears  imbued 
with  patriotism  rooted  in  freedom.  The  general 
government  is  administered  by  officials  and  repre- 
sentatives, often  chosen  from  the  poorest  classes, 
with  comparative  economy  and  thrift.  The  result- 
ing prosperity,  combined  with  the  simplicity  of  the 
constitution,  which  is  clear  to  the  plainest  under- 
standing, has  made  a  model  of  both  State  and  Con- 
stitution which  the  discontented  and  lovers  of  free- 
The  Creed  dom  of  all  uutions  Strive  to  emulate.    The  American 

or  Lil»eral- 

'""'  Declaration  of  Independence  in    1776  has    become 

the  creed  oE  the  liberalism  of  the  world. 


INTRODUCTION  31 

After  a  compromise  constitution  had  been  estab- 
lished in  England,  and  when  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence bj  the  American  colonies  had  been  fol- 
lowed by  a  purely  republican  constitution  in  the 
United  States,  both  began  to  exercise  an  influence 
across  the  sea  upon  the  European  continent  and  to 
react  upon  the  Romanic  races.  At  the  very  period  l®^^'^®'^ 
when  the  English  colonies  prepared  for  separation, 
however,  some  new  tendencies  appeared  in  history, 
which  interrupted,  magnified  and  involved  the  hith- 
erto simple  course  of  affairs. 

Previous  to  this,  war  and  peace  both  had  been 
largely  a  result  of  religious  differences.  Even  when 
the  issue  was  one  of  national  moment,  or  when  it  was 
ostensibly  a  struggle  for  power  between  hostile  States, 
religious  questions  were  still  deeply  involved  in  them. 
This  simple  relation  of  the  European  people  toward 
one  another,  this  long-lasting  cause  of  dispute  in 
history,  was  lost  in  the  wars  which  arose  after  the 
independence  of  the  English  colonies  in  America. 
The  interests  of  commerce  and  territorial  expansion 
took  the  place  of  those  of  religion  and  dictated  the  ^^^^ 
laws  and  policy  of  States,  settled  the  occasions  of  war 
and  revolutions  and  prescribed  the  articles  of  am- 
nesties and  treaties  of  peace.  Religion  likewise  no 
longer  lay  at  the  root  of  the  political  struggles  in 
America,  but  commercial  and  international  prin- 
ciples, which  were  largely  borrowed  from  abstract 
philosophical  theories.  They  proclaimed  the  ad- 
vent of  a  new  agent  in  politics,  the  influence  of 
Science  and  Literature. 

This  altered  position  of  nations,  these  new  and 


82  INTRODUCTION 

potent  forces  in  the  history  of  the  world,  are  the 
first  signs  that  the  bitter  hostility  caused  by  relig- 
ious differences  and  the  political  principles  which 
had  exclusively  belonged  to  either  division  of  the 
great  European  people,  had  lost  their  power.  The 
immediate  consequence  was,  that  as  soon  as  the  in- 
dependence of  America  was  established,  the  great 

^Ir^^J"^^  movement  for  freedom  passed  from  there  over  to 
°™  France  and  tore  down  religious  bigotry  and  despot- 

ism in  the  greatest  of  Romance  races. 

During  Spain's  encounter  with  the  Teutonic  races, 
the  clash  of  Catholicism  with  Protestantism,  France 
had  found  herself,  if  not  exactly  in  a  central  posi- 
tion, in  a  suspended  state  of  balance  between  the 
diverging  tendencies  which  led  to  the  hostility  of 
the  north  and  south.  It  seemed  as  if  it  were  her 
vocation  to  prevent  a  lasting  superiority  of  either 
party,  just  as  if  the  Teutonic  and  Gallic-Roman 
elements  of  the  race  had  alternately  fought  for  it. 

ance^cff"  France  felt  the  necessity  to  repress  the  overgrown 
power  of  Spain,  even  if  it  had  to  be  in  league 
with  Protestant  States;  but  as  soon  as  England 
grew  to  be  a  dangerous  neighbor  by  this  alliance, 
France  considered  herself  bound  to  return  to  her 
connection  with  the  Catholic  powers.  When 
Charles  V.  drove  the  French  out  of  Italy,  the 
House  of  Valois  united  with  Landgraves  Philip 
and  Maurice  of  Saxony  against  Spain.  In  the 
Sixteenth  Century,  France  joined  Spain  in  an  al- 
liance against  England,  and  three  years  later  allied 
herself  with  England  against  Spain.  Henri  lY.  con- 
tinued to  keep  on  good  terms  with  both  the  Protes- 


INTRODUCTION  •  S3 

tant  and  Catholic  powers.  The  former  changes  re- 
commenced under  Richelieu,  and  while  in  league  with 
England  against  Spain,  he  laid  schemes  with  Spain 
and  the  Pope  for  an  attack  on  England,  and  at  the 
same  time  formed  an  alliance  with  Sweden  against 
Spain  and  Austria.  By  this  shifting  policy,  France  vacillation 
had  been  frequently  saved  from  Protestantism,  as 
in  the  time  of  Maurice  of  Saxony  and  the  period 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  when  Protestantism  gained 
so  much  ground.  But  Protestantism  was  promptly 
suppressed  by  Louis  XIV.  when  it  ceased  to  be  a 
source  of  danger  and  alarm.  To  the  cause  of  free- 
dom in  France  it  has  always  been  detrimental  for 
her  rulers  to  side  with  Spain  or  to  follow  the  lead 
of  Spanish  policy,  whereas  her  temporary  alliances 
with  England  and  Protestantism  have  proved  bene- 
ficial, not  less  so  in  the  times  of  Henri  IV.  than  in 
those  of  Louis  Philippe.  This  perpetual  vacilla- 
tion produced  the  reverse  of  constancy  in  the  politi- 
cal and  religious  character  of  the  people  as  in  that  the^Peopie 
of  their  government.  Throughout  the  later  history 
of  France,  the  strangest  discords  occur  in  the  princi- 
ples of  her  government,  in  the  administrative  bodies 
of  the  State,  and  in  the  different  factions  either  in 
politics  or  in  literature.  Absolutism  had  its  demo- 
cratic freaks,  and  Democracy  its  despotic  propensi- 
ties. Literature  wavered  between  pagan  free-thought 
and  monkish  bigotry.  Poets  praised  republican  vir- 
tues with  a  servile  muse,  Parliaments  fluctuated  be- 
tween cringing  flattery  and  vulgar  uproars.  The 
clergy  preached  to-day  the  divine  right  of  princes 
and  to-morrow  the  sovereignty  of  the  people.     The 


84  '  INTRODUCTION 

Jesuits  taught  democratic  principles  in  matters  of 
State  and  despotism  in  those  of  dogma.     This  play 

lifiiutuces  of  alternate  extremes  may  be  observed  in  all  the 
relations  of  France  down  to  the  present  day. 

The  prosperity  of  the  colonies  of  the  JSIew  World 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  caused 
a  change  in  the  condition  of  those  States  from  which 
they  had  proceeded.  Shipping  was  carried  on  far 
more  extensively  and  underwent  great  improve- 
ments. Maritime  commerce  seemed  to  promise  to 
become  more  lucrative  than  that  by  land.  The  con- 
nection of  the  two  hemispheres  multiplied  human 
wants  as  well  as  the  means  of  satisfying  them;  it 
increased  the  materials  for  industry  and  spread  its 
happy  results.  Vast  commercial  relations  were  es« 
tablished  to  equalize  demand  and  s apply,  superflu- 
ity and  want.  Industry  and  trade  became  sources 
of  wealth  to  the  middle  class,  and,  therefore,  a  stim- 
ulus to  individual  exertion  which  had  never  before 
existed.  They  also  became  the  sources  of  the  na- 
tion's wealth,  and,  therefore,  tke  first  object  to  be 
considered  in  politics  and  government.      This  was 

New  World  all  the  more  the  case,  since,  by  the  altered  condition 
of  the  world,  the  growth  of  the  States,  and  the  com- 
plicated relations  of  all  the  affairs  of  life,  the  re- 
sources which  formerly  had  provided  for  the  exi- 
gencies of  the  government,  such  as  crown-lands  and 
land-taxes,  sufficed  as  little  now  for  the  expenses 
of  the  State  as  the  feudal  military  service  for  its 
defence.  In  this  new  aspect  of  affairs  it  became  a 
question  which  nation  would  apply  its  skill  and 
industry  to  the  greatest  advantage.     France  discov- 


INTRODUCTION  36 

ered  this  later  than  all  her  neighbors,  and  roused 
herself,  finally,  under  Richelieu  and  Louis  XIV. 
Then  she  endeavored  to  make  amends  for  her  de- 
lay by  improvements  in  her  navy,  by  new  commer- 
cial industry  and  by  her  attempts  at  colonization,  ^n  Awak- 
Two  radically  different  examples  served  to  entice  FraJu;©*' 
and  to  warn. 

The  policy  of  the  Spanish  kings  had  always 
turned  to  an  aggrandizement  of  power  and  domin- 
ion, and  for  this  purpose  they  required  the  most 
unlimited  authority  and  the  disposal  of  all  the  re- 
sources of  the  State.  This  system  of  government, 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  repressed  the  ancient 
love  of  freedom  in  the  people.  Those  means  from 
which  other  nations,  in  the  altered  condition  of  the 
world,  derived  their  abiding  strength,  checked  all 
intellectual  and  commercial  activity.  The  Spanish 
settlements  were  made  in  the  spirit  of  this  despotic 
policy.  They  were  conducted  and  regulated  by  the 
government.  To  add  to  her  splendor,  Spain  took 
possession  of  enormous  tracts  of  land,  which  the 
emigration  of  a  thousand  years  could  scarcely  peo- 
ple.     Grants   of    land   were   made   only   to   native 

Spaniards,  and  the  mother  country  exhausted  her  The  Ex- 
am pie  of 
population,  which  was  already  weakened  by  the  ex-  ^p*'"^ 

pulsion  of  the  Moors  and  the  Jews.     The  settlers 

looked  for  gold,  for  rapid  gain,  for  indulgence,  not 

for  labor.  Incitement  to  all  active  energy  was  stifled. 

Spanish  commerce  declined,  as  agriculture  had  long 

ago  declined  under  the  thraldom  and   privilege   of 

class.    With  the  failure  of  home  profits,  trade  ceased 

or  passed  into  the  hands  of  strangers.     With  the 


9» 


INTRODUCTION 


Spanish 
Mistakes 


British 

Colonists 

Profit 


poverty  of  private  individuals  came  the  weakness  of 
the  State,  which  was  required  to  grant  the  convoy 
of  great  fleets  to  private  galleons  laden  with  gold, 
when  it  had  not  a  ship  for  the  defence  of  its  coasts. 
The  situation  of  the  colonies,  the  luxuriant  world 
of  the  tropics,  which  needed  little  human  aid  for 
its  productions,  favored  the  indolent  inclinations 
of  the  Southern  settler.  Religious  bigotry  impeded 
the  growth  of  home  rule  and  active  independence 
of  mind.  Even  where  it  assumed  an  appearance  of 
humanity,  it  promoted  only  the  material  advan- 
tage of  the  foreigner,  without  avoiding  the  decline 
of  morals  at  home.  Thus,  because  the  inhuman 
monopoly  of  the  importation  of  black  slaves  into 
the  Spanish  colonies  was  a  scandal  to  the  Catholic 
Church,  the  trade  was  given  over  into  the  hands 
of  foreigners,  and  finally,  by  the  Assiento  of  1711, 
resigned  wholly  to  the  English,  who  reaped  from  it 
an  immense  profit  both  for  their  own  commerce  and 
for  that  of  their  colonies. 

With  the  Teutonic  and  democratic  colonies  all 
this  was  reversed.  Spain  discovered  the  new  world, 
but  the  Teutonic  race  tilled  its  soil.  Under  them 
everything  conduced  rather  to  the  energy  and  cul- 
ture of  each  member  of  the  State  than  to  the  acqui- 
sition of  territorial  power.  The  State  as  such  did 
little  for  the  colonization  of  America.  The  colo- 
nists took  possession  of  only  a  few  tracts  of  land  for 
their  settlements.  They  were  not  like  the  lower 
gentry  which  emigrated  from  Spain,  but  were  the 
middle  class  from  the  country  and  towns,  a  class 
which  was  unknown  in  the  Romanic  States.     Emi- 


INTRODUCTION  37 

grants  from  all  the  world  were  at  liberty  to  settle 
down  beside  the  Englishman.  The  greatest  profit 
fell  to  the  most  industrious.  Enjoyment  was  sought 
in  labor.  The  climate  and  soil,  which  resembled 
that  of  the  home  they  had  abandoned,  sharpened 
rather  than  blunted  their  exertions.  The  habits  of 
the  north,  the  vigorous  spirit  of  Protestantism,  the 
assiduity  of  the  Teutonic  races,  everything  contrib- 
uted to  favor  great  commercial  activity  at  home  New  world 
and  in  the  colonies.  From  it  arose  a  degree  of  pros- 
perity and  political  importance  in  the  middle  class 
of  which  history  affords  no  previous  example. 

In  the  colonies,  the  French  Jesuits  in  Canada 
performed  wonders  of  conversion  and  martyrdom, 
but  the  planters  of  Louisiana  did  nothing  which 
could  be  compared  to  the  miracles  performed  by 
Anglo-Saxon  activity.  The  French  planter  never 
exhibited  the  daring  spirit  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
pioneer,  who  penetrated  into  the  depths  of  the 
forest  and  conquered  the  wilderness  for  cultivation,  saxon 

^  Darinj 

Unlike  the  Spaniard  in  the  South,  he  found  no  ex- 
cuse for  indolence  in  the  relaxation  of  the  tropics. 
The  fault  here  was  with  the  men,  who  were  not 
accustomed  to  think  and  act  for  themselves  in  the 
free  life  of  a  community.  In  additioh  to  this, 
the  French  settlers  assumed  a  hostile  attitude 
toward  England  from  the  commencement.  The 
French  settlers  in  North  America  surrounded  the 
English  colonial  cities  in  the  rear  and  on  either 
side.  They  instigated  the  Indians  to  attack  them, 
and,  by  a  more  rapid  increase  of  their  settlements, 
they  hoped  at  some  future  time  to  advance  from 


38  INTRODUCTION 

the  rear  upon  their  coasts.  However,  this  prospect 
of  gaining  advantage  over  the  English  colonies 
b_y  their  superior  position  was  soon  frustrated  by 
the  indifference  and  incapacity  for  colonization  of 
the  French  themselves.  The  first  half-century  of  the 
Impotence  French  settlement  in  Louisiana  did  not  exhibit  one- 

of  LatiD 

^ce  tenth  part  of  the  population  nor  of  the  results  which 
were  produced  in  that  time  in  New  England,  This 
fact  only  stirred  up  more  jealousy  between  France 
and  England,  which  already  derived  too  much 
nourishment  in  their  religious  differences,  in  their 
diverse  origin  and  in  the  geographical  proximity  of 
the  two  countries. 

This  jealousy,  which  soon  led  to  war,  proved 
of  material  service  in  laying  the  foundation  of  free- 
dom in  North  America.  If  the  French  settlers  had 
succeeded  in  establishing  themselves  there  in  great 
numbers,  the  English  would  probably,  from  the 
dread  of  French  rule,  have  consented  to  remain 
faithful  to  the  mother  country  under  any  condition, 

French      As  there  was  no  hope  of  this,  France  conceived  the 

Hostility 

Turned  to  thought  of  Weakening  England  by  a  separation  from 
her  colonies;  and  they,  as  soon  as  they  saw  France 
change  from  an  enemy  into  an  ally,  threw  off  their 
regard  foi*  the  mother  country  and  set  themselves 
free — an  aim  they  had  kept  in  view  ever  since  the 
parliamentary  government  in  England  laid  its  hand 
on  them,  England  herself,  by  her  foreign  colonial 
policy,  had  given  the  chief  pretext  for  this  alliance 
with  France  and  even  with  Spain  of  her  rebellious 
colonies. 

However    the    whole     scheme     and     commercial 


INTRODUCTION  39 

activity  of  the  English  colonies  might  differ  from 
those  originating  with  Romance  races,  yet  the 
practice  of  the  English  government  had  essentially 
agreed  with  that  of  the  latter.  They  all  maintained 
that  the  mother  country  had  the  exclusive  right 
to  trade  with  the  colonies,  to  subject  them  to 
a  commercial  code  and  to  treat  them  as  a  means 
to  their  ends.  Every  other  nation  was  debarred 
from  trading  with  them;  the  foreign  merchant  was coioniai 

°  '  °  Spirit 

treated  as  a  privateer.  By  this  measure  he  became 
such,  and  the  prize  was  allotted  to  him  whose  bold- 
ness and  activity  dared  the  most,  and  accordingly 
fell  to  the  energetic  Englishman.  From  the  time  of 
the  Assiento,  in  1711,  the  English  wrought  havoc 
on  Spanish-American  commerce  by  a  shameless 
system  of  smuggling,  for  which  the  importation  of 
the  negro  furnished  a  pretext.  About  the  time 
of  the  conclusion  of  the  thirty  years'  trace,  the 
merchants  urged  upon  the  English  government  a 
war  with  Spain  on  the  subject  of  the  exclusive  sys- 
tem of  monopoly  which  they  themselves  practiced 
at  home.  England  was  opposed  to  Spain  in  theEngHs^J^ 
great  naval  expeditions  against  Carthagena  and"*^ 
Panama,  in  1741  and  1742,  the  object  of  which  was 
the  separation  of  Mexico  and  Peru  from  the  mother 
country,  as  Spain  had  once  opposed  England  in  the 
time  of  the  Invincible  Armada.  Both  armaments 
came  to  a  like  inglorious  end.  The  world  already 
trembled  before  the  naval  power  of  England,  and 
France  consulted  with  Spain  on  a  compensation  by 
the  English  colonies,  even  at  the  risk  of  her  own. 
The  great  naval  war  of  1755  confirmed  this  project 


40  INTRODUCTION 

in  the  eyes  of  France  even  more  than  in  those  of 
Spain.  France  was  punished  for  it  by  the  loss 
o?can^a  of  Canada  and  of  her  navy.  The  English  influence 
during  that  period  was  rising  in  the  East  Indies, 
and  England  appeared  as  much  resolved  to  assert 
her  supremacy  at  sea,  as  Spain  had  once  been  to 
assert  hers  on  land.  In  pursuance  of  these  projects, 
Parliament  was  as  despotic  as  any  monarchy  in  its 
measures  both  at  home  and  abroad.  England  con- 
tended against  the  republican  movements  in  her 
colonies  with  the  same  means  that  an  absolute 
monarchy  might  have  used.  The  importation  of 
negroes  was  encouraged  to  diminish  the  numbers 
of  dangerous  white  freemen.  No  doubts  were  enter- 
tained concerning  Canada,  as  the  presence  of  the 
French  there  kept  up  the  loyalty  of  the  colonies 
to  the  mother  country.  But  when  the  Americans 
had  already  succeeded  in  laying  the  plan  for  a 
Eucroach-  federal  constitution  which  plainly  announced  their 
"^°  views  of  a  possible  independence,  and  wheu  fear  of 

the  French  after  the  wars  of  1755  could  no  longer 
restrain  them,  Parliament,  instead  of  trying  to  at- 
tach them  by  offering  conciliatory  measures,  adopted 
a  still  more  oppressive  line  of  conduct  than  that 
which  had  already  excited  the  discontent  of  the  colo- 
nists. The  British  Parliament,  in  which  the  Ameri- 
cans were  not  represented,  and  which  was  even  igno- 
rant of  their  affairs,  since  the  revolution  of  1688  had 
gradually  invested  itself  with  supreme  authority 
over  the  colonies  and  their  usages.  It  insisted  that 
the  final  decision  in  matters  of  jurisdiction  must  be 
reierred   to  England.      The   colonies   were   treated 


INTRODUCTION  41 

only  as  a  commercial  establishment.  Commerce 
among  themselves  or  with  foreign  nations  was  for- 
bidden, and  all  industry  was  suppressed.  This  ex- 
cited so  much  discontent  about  the  middle  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century  that  wise  men  prophesied  the 
approaching  separation.  But  no  one  as  yet  had 
conceived  the  idea  of  imposing  a  tax  upon  the  colo- Taxes'*' 
nies.  In  1764,  when  this  innovation  was  first  at- 
tempted in  the  form  of  a  stamp  tax,  systematic 
resistance  began.  The  first  open  rupture  was  oc- 
casioned by  a  tax  on  tea.  The  Colonial  Congress 
of  1774  commenced  by  a  Declaration  of  Eights,  in 
which  they  announced  their  intention  of  maintain- 
ing all  existing  relations,  and  in  which  they  re- 
hearsed and  vindicated  their  old  privileges,  follow- 
ing the  example  of  the  English  in  their  declaration 
of  rights  to  William  III.  Yet  they  shrank  from  the 
name  of  rebellion.  But  as  oppression  grew  regard- 
less, so  also  grew  the  desire  for  independence  in  ^™|pe'n'!f 
the  colonies.  Formal  independence  was  declared ''^"^^ 
in  1776.  The  injustice  of  decrees  levied  to  satisfy 
the  covetous  desires  of  the  mother  country  had 
irritated  the  Americans ;  the  folly  of  wavering  reso- 
lutions had  inspired  them  with  courage;  the  last 
brutal  procedure,  which  Fox  called  the  scalping 
tomahawk  measure,  ended  all  hesitation.  The  year 
1782  gave  the  colonies  their  independence.  France 
had  declared  war  on  England  in  1Y78 — all  the  naval 
forces  in  the  West  failed  England,  and  those  of  the 
East  disputed  her  usurped  rights  of  the  sea.  But 
there  was  a  considerable  difference  in  the  position  of 
England  at  that  time  compared  with  former  rulers 


42  INTRODUCTION 

of  the  world  under  similar  circumstances.  The 
Bympathy  greatest  men  of  the  English  Parliament  had  contin- 
ually been  opposed  to  the  taxation  of  the  colonies 
for  the  benefit  of  the  English  treasury — they  had 
rejoiced  in  the  insurrection  and  prophesied  its  vic- 
tories. Parliament  early  adopted  their  views  and 
refused  to  prolong  the  war  indefinitely  as  the  Span- 
iards had  done  in  the  Netherlands.  England  was 
no  more  weakened  by  the  loss  of  her  colonies,  which 
gave  so  much  satisfaction  to  France,  than  she  was 
by  the  closing  of  the  Continent  under  Napoleon. 
On  the  contrary,  the  full  development  of  her  internal 
strength  and  her  judicial  administration  now  really 
began.  That  to  which  she  chiefly  owed  the  great- 
ness of  her  commerce,  and  the  power  it  communi- 
cated to  her  government — the  active  energy  of  the 
people — no  war  could  destroy.  This  was  strength- 
ened indeed  by  the  greater  freedom  of  the  State  and 
the  now  untrammelled  trade  with  North  America, 
niaisystem  The  rcsult  of  it  was  the  sentence  of  doom  on  the  old 

condemned       ,        .    ,  m,  .  „ 

colonial  system.  The  separation  of  the  Spanish 
colonies  was  a  natural  sequence  to  the  liberation 
of  North  America.  The  patent  errors  of  the  pre- 
vailing commercial  system  were  clearly  demon- 
strated and  denounced  by  all.  The  first  great  path 
to  free  commercial  intercourse  was  opened,  which 
was  followed  by  succeeding  generations.  A  new 
road  had  been  opened  to  political  freedom,  for 
which  new  possibilities  arose  in  the  foundation  of 
the  new  American  States. 

The  foreign  aid  of  France  had  helped  to  complete 
the  independence  of  the   United  States,  a  turn  of 


INTRODUCTION  43 

affairs  which  would  not  have  been  thought  possi- 
ble during  the  reign  of  Louis  XIY.  Tlie  inflacnce 
of  the  intellectual  movement  which  had  taken  place 
in  France  since  that  time  added  to  the  internal  State 
development  which  the  new  federal  government 
adopted.  These  two  facts  led  to  the  entire  over- 
throw of  the  old  French  constitution. 

The  theories  of  Rousseau  were  first  brought  into 
practice  in  the  American  constitution  as  the  princi- 

Influence 

pies  of  a  new  code  of  politics.  The  combination  of  o°  France 
new  theories  of  government  with  their  realization 
after  the  independence  of  the  American  colonies  ac- 
celerated the  reaction  of  the  movements  for  freedom 
in  the  Old  World  upon  these  results.  When,  in  the 
Sixteenth  Century,  France  was  obliged  to  strengthen 
herself  to  the  utmost  possible  unity,  on  account  of 
the  menacing  power  of  Spain,  so  now,  when  she  was 
exposed  to  similar  dangers  during  the  Revolution,  she 
was  obliged  to  apply  the  same  policy  for  her  preser- 
vation. Both  the  moderate  constitutional  monarchy 
of  Louis  XVI.,  and  the  Dictatorship,  showed  them- 
selves either  unwilling  or  unable  to  meet  the  alarm- 
ing confederacy  of  European  princes.  The  Reign  of  French  Re- 
Terror  was  first  needed  to  collect  the  whole  effective 
force  of  the  country.  Later  on,  the  universal  empire 
and  military  despotism  were  required  to  fight  the 
great  nations  of  the  east  with  their  own  weapons. 
The  emancipation  of  all  those  that  are  oppressed 
and  suffering  is  the  vocation  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century.  The  force  of  this  idea  has  been  vic- 
torious over  mighty  interests  and  deeply-rooted 
institutions,  which  may  be  perceived  in  the  aboli- 


44  INTRODUCTION 

Ethical  tiQu  of  serfdom  and  villanage  in  Europe  and  in 
the  liberation  of  slaves  in  America.  This  is  one 
of  the  greatest  features  of  the  time.  The  strength 
and  belief  of  conviction,  the  power  of  thought,  the 
force  of  resolution,  a  clear  view  of  the  object  pur- 
sued, endurance  and  self-sacrifice,  are  all  enlisted 
on  the  side  of  the  people,  and  give  this  historical 
movement  the  character  of  Providence  which  can- 
not be  resisted. 

It  is  this  character  we  recognize  in  all  the  move- 
ments of  the  age,  even  those  not  appearing  periodi- 
cally. The  history  we  propose  to  narrate  was  divided 
into  three  movements,  which  appear  to  be  impelled 
by  a  higher  power,  and  in  turn  have  shaken  a  great 
part  of  the  world  to  its  foundation.  They  follow 
one  another  almost  in  geometric  progression.  The 
same  progression  which  we  have  observed  in  time, 
people  and  country  may  be  observed  also  in  the 
direction  of  the  movement  itself.  The  course  of 
freedom,  as  we  have  seen  since  the  Reformation, 
has  been  chiefly  in  the  regions  of  the  north  among 
Teutonic  races  until  it  reached  America,  where  it 
found  its  natural  limits.     From  that  time  it  moved 

Modern      back  toward  the   east.     Its  landing   in  France  was 

Movements 

difficult  to  effect;  the  whole  of  the  east  of  Europe 
and  even  the  free  west  opposed  the  new  importation 
— but  it  secured  its  first  footing.  The  movements 
of  the  twenties  passed  over  from  South  America  to 
Spain,  from  Italy  to  Greece,  in  regular  line  toward 
the  east.  The  July  revolution  procured  soil  for 
freedom  in  France,  and  it  breathed  again  in  Spain, 
in   Belgium,  and   in    Old  England — it  endeavored 


INTRODUCTION  45 

even  to  reach  Poland.  In  the  year  1848  the  Con- 
tinent was  shaken  to  its  centre,  and  the  revolution 
penetrated  the  stronghold  of  Conservative  principle, 
even  as  far  as  Prussia  and  the  Balkans.  In  this  his- 
tory we  shall  above  all  see  the  hand  of  Providence 
in  these  movements. 

The  resources  of  the  United  States,  sufficient  for 
their  own  supply,  and  their  refusing  all  other  na- 
tions the  right  of  occupation  in  America  as  pro- 
claimed in  the  famous  Monroe  Doctrine,  will  in  time  P^?^?^'"^ 

'  Doctrine 

restrict  the  amount  of  emigration  from  Europe,  and 
limit  the  commerce  of  the  West.  In  an  equal  pro- 
portion the  increasing  decay  of  the  East  will  invite 
to  a  renewal  of  the  old  commerce  and  civilization 
of  Asia. 

To  effect  this,  the  freedom  of  the  continental  na- 
tions of  Europe  is  required,  if  the  advantages  which 
these  prospects  open  are  not  to  be  lost  to  those 
whom  they  most  concern.  This  eastern  course  of 
the  principle  of  political  freedom,  which  history 
Beems  so  confidently  to  predict,  will  be  fulfilled. 


A  HISTORY 

OF 

THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


A 


YEARS    OF  FORECAST 

T  THE  END  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  the  Discussion 
civilized  world,  though  distracted  with  wars  S"'L of  .^ 
and  revolutions,  found  time  to  spare  for^''"'"''^ 
quarrels  about  the  beginning  of  the  new  century. 
Two  parties  disputed  the  question  then,  as  they 
did  a  hundred  years  later.  One  held  that  the 
Nineteenth  Century  began  with  January  1,  1800, 
the  other  maintained  that  it  would  not  begin  until 
after  the  last  day  of  that  year.  Those  that  clung 
to  the  first  view  were  known  as  the  "Ninety-niners" 
— chief  among  whom  were  the  German  poets  Goethe, 
Schiller,  and  Jean  Paul  Eichter.  The  philoso- 
phers of  the  so-called  Age  of  Reason  disputed 
this  view  almost  to  a  man.  Thus,  the  savants 
of  the  French  Academy  put  themselves  on  record 
in  opposition  to  this  theory,  as  did  the  ablest  schol- 
ars of  England.  On  New  Year's  Daj',  1800,  even 
the  London  "Times"  thundered  against  the  heresy 
of  "Ninety-nine."  At  best  this  was  but  an  aca- 
demic discussion  of  mere  momentary  interest  amid 
the  startling  events  that  crowded  one  upon  another 
in  those  days. 

(47) 


48  A    HISTORY   OF   TEE 

r^eath  of       Iq  the  New  World  the  revolutionary  period  came 
**"*  to  an  end  with  the  death  of  its  master  spirit,  George 

Washington.  In  his  farewell  address,  issued  when 
he  declined  the  Presidency  for  a  third  term,  Wash- 
ington had  left  a  solemn  legacy  to  his  countrymen 
to  avoid  foreign  entanglements,  holding  it  to  be 
"the  true  American  policy  to  steer  clear  of  per- 
manent alliances  with  any  portion  of  the  foreign 
world."  In  pursuance  of  this  policy,  Washington 
had  not  hesitated  to  break  with  France.  When  the 
new  French  Republic  became  embroiled  in  war  with 
England,  he  issued  a  proclamation  of  neutrality. 
Washington's  efforts,  while  productive  of  immedi- 
ate evil,  wrought  ultimate  good.  They  saved  the 
young  American  Republic  from  entering  into  a  long 
and  costly  war  at  a  time  when  his  country's  greatest 
need  was  peace  and  the  establishment  of  a  solid 
national  credit. 

Then  began  the  wonderful  development  of  the 
western  prairies,  while  a  new  impulse  to  industry 
and  commerce  in  the  Southern  States  was  given  by 
Whitney's  invention  of  the  cotton  gin.  By  the 
time  the  capital  of  the  nation  was  transferred  from 
D^ve'iop't"  Philadelphia  to  the  city  of  Washington,  the  Ameri- 
can people  were  well  started  on  the  way  to  pros- 
perity. 

Upon  Washington's  successor,  John  Adams,  fell 
the  immediate  brunt  of  the  new  American  policy. 
The  first  prospect  was  war  with  France.  Through- 
out the  European  wars,  brought  forth  by  the  French 
Revolution,  the  United  States  were  in  the  position 
of  a  feeble  neutral  between  aggressive  belligerents. 


me  lit 


NINETEENTH   CENTURY  49 

Whatever  turn  the  tide  of  war  might  take,  Ameri- 
can commerce  was  sure  to  suffer.  Jay's  treaty  withTrel'y 
Great  Britain  had  brought  some  amelioration  by 
providing  for  a  commission  to  pass  upon  claims 
of  American  citizens  for  loss  or  damage  sustained 
by  reason  of  the  illegal  capture  or  condemnation  of 
their  vessels.  The  concessions  obtained  from  Eng- 
land only  provoked  the  privateers  of  France  to  fur- 
ther outrages.  The  American  commissioners  sent 
to  France  were  not  received  by  the  Directory.  At 
last  they  reported  that  immunity  from  attack  could 
only  be  bought  with  money.  President  Adams, 
substituting  the  letters  X  Y  Z  for  the  names  of  the 
French  agents,  sent  a  full  report  of  their  demands 
to  Congress.  The  people  of  the  United  States  were 
at  once  aroused,  and  acting  upon  Pinckney's  pas- 
sionate declaration,  ''Millions  for  defence,  not  one 
cent  for  tribute!"  forthwith  armed  for  war.  A  new 
navy  department   and   marine   corps  were  created,  Maritime 

*■  War  with 

twelve  frigates  were  fitted  out,  and  letters  of  marque  ^'■ance 
granted  to  privateers.     Altogether  a  navy  of  thirty- 
eight  stanch  vessels  was  called  into  being.     "Hail 
Columbia"  became  the  popular  song  of  the  day. 

The  first  conflicts  were  in  West  Indian  waters. 
Captain  Decatur,  commanding  tlie  "Delaware,"  cap- 
tured the  French  privateering  schooner  "Croyable." 
Eenamed  as  the  "Retaliation,"  she  was  presently 
recaptured  by  the  French.  In  February,  1799,  the 
American  frigate  "Constellation,"  commanded  by 
Captain  Truxtun,  near  the  island  of  Nevis,  defeated 
and  captured  the  French  man-of-war  "Insurgente." 
David    Porter,    then    a    midshipman,    with   eleven 

XTXth  Century— Vol.  1—3 


60  A    HISTORY   OF   THE 

American  seamen  brought  in  the  prize,  single- 
handed.  The  American  squadron  in  the  West 
Indies,  while  cruising  for  French  prizes,  improved 

American 

Naval  Ex-  the  occasion  by  suppressing  the  piracies  of  the 
troublesome  picaroons  of  the  West  Indies.  Nearly 
a  year  later,  on  February  3,  1800,  Captain  Truxtun 
added  to  his  laurels  and  those  of  the  "Constellation" 
by  beating  the  French  frigate  "Vengeance"  to  a 
standstill  off  the  island  of  Guadeloupe.  Previous 
to  this.  Captain  Little  of  the  "Boston"  had  defeated 
and  captured  the  French  corvette-of-war  "Berceau." 
In  all,  some  ninety  French  vessels,  carrying  alto- 
gether more  than  seven  hundred  guns,  were  cap- 
tured during  the  war,  and  a  great  number  of  Ameri- 
can ships  were  retaken.  By  the  close  of  1800  the 
purposes  of  the  war  had  been  accomplished.  Bona- 
parte, who  had  just  come  into  power,  willingly 
granted  redress  to  the  United  States. 

Napoleon  Bonaparte  had  weightier  problems  on 
bis  mind  than  the  prosecution  of  a  harassing  gue- 
rilla warfare  on  water  against  a  distant  race  of  sail- 
ors. For  his  own  part,  Bonaparte  had  learned  his 
first  bitter  lessons  of  the  sea  when  the  French  fleet 
of  seventeen  vessels  that  had  carried  his  army  to 
Egypt  was  destroyed  by  Nelson  in  the  battle  of  the 

the  Nile  Nile,  on  tbe  first  day  of  August,  1798.  Another 
French  fleet  of  nine  vessels,  attempting  to  reach  the 
coast  of  Ireland  early  in  September  of  the  same  year, 
likewise  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  British.  Ruinous 
as  these  strokes  of  war  were  to  the  French  in  Egypt, 
who  thus  found  themselves  cut  off  from  all  succor, 
General  Bonaparte  pursued  his  conquest  of  Egypt. 


NINETEENTH   CENTURY  61 

After  defeating  the  Mameluke  horsemen  under  the  p^J:^*Jjg 
shadow  of  the  Pyramids,  he  marched  into  Syria, 
stormed  Jaffa,  and  pushed  on  to  St.  Jean  d'Acre, 
after  massacring  his  prisoners.  Here  again  English 
ships  under  Sydney  Smith  spoiled  his  plans.  After 
a  siege  of  two  months,  during  which  the  French  suc- 
ceeded in  beating  off  an  overwhelming  number  of 
Turks  that  came  to  the  relief  of  Acre,  Bonaparte 
had  to  retire  baffled  from  the  ruined  walls  of  the 
ancient  stronghold.  This  ended  his  project  for 
the  subjugation  of  the  Orient.  Years  afterward 
he  confessed  that  Sir  Sydney's  defence  of  Acre  had 
made  him  miss  his  destiny.  For  Bonaparte,  further 
stay  in  Egypt  was  fruitless.  His  brilliant  defeat  of 
the  Turks  in  the  second  battle  of  Aboukir  did  notAboukir 
change  the  situation.  Before  this,  battle.  General 
Bonaparte  had  received  urgent  tidings  from  his 
brothers  in  France.  Then  and  there  he  resolved 
to  return  to  Europe.  Leaving  his  army  in  the 
lurch  at  Cairo,  under  the  command  of  the  brilliant 
Kl^ber,  he  embarked  secretly  at  Alexandria  on 
October  6,  1799,  and  made  a  run  for  France.  Pur- 
sued by  British  cruisers  and  beaten  about  by 
storms,  the  ship  that  bore  him  finally  landed  him 
at  Samt  Kaphau,  near  Fr^jus,  after  a  voyage  of 
thirty-six  days. 

During  Bonaparte's  absence,  disaster  threatened 
the  young  Fjench  Eepublic.  Russia,  Austria  and 
England  were  leagued  against  her.  In  Italy  the 
Russian  general,  Suvaroff,  had  beaten  the  French 
in  a  series  of  brilliant  battles.  In  the  final  battle 
of  Novi,  General  Joubert,  one  of  the  most  promis- 


62  A    HISTORY    OF   THE 

ing  of  French  generals,   had  fallen  at  the  head  of 

his   troops.      The  so-called  Parthenopean   republic 

of   Italy  fell  with    him.      Less  decisive  campaigns 

_    ^        were  waged  in  Switzerland  and  Holland  where  the 

Weakness  '-' 

Qovern^*^   Frcnch  gcncrals,   Mass^na  and  Brune,  succeeded  in 
™^°  holding  their  own  against  an  English  and  Russian 

army  under  the  Duke  of  York.  The  varying  issues 
of  so  many  campaigns  had  their  serious  effect  on 
the  political  fortunes  of  the  men  who  composed  the 
Directoire  government  in  France.  They  were  all 
civilians  and  were  accordingly  disliked  by  the  army. 
Internal  dissensions  leading  to  frequent  overturns 
of  the  Cabinet  had  further  weakened  their  hold  on 
the  people.  All  France  yearned  for  a  strong  man. 
About  this  time  came  the  reports  of  General 
Bonaparte's  victories  at  Mount  Tabor  and  Aboukir, 
together  with  a  false  account  of  the  fall  of  St.  Jean 
d'Acre.  France  went  into  frenzies  of  delight. 
Political  agitators,  instigated  by  Napoleon's  broth- 
ers, Joseph  and  Lucien,  inveighed  against  Bona- 
parte's continued  "exile,"  and  petitions  were  made 
to  the  Council  of  Five  Hundred  to  revoke  the  suc- 
cessful general's  "deportation."  Now  came  the 
news   that   General    Bonaparte    had    landed  on  the 

Bonaparte  r    n  t  i    i   i 

R.-turns  to  coast  oi   Frovencc.     it  seemed  like  a  miracle.    "1 

France 

was  sitting  that  day,"  wrote  B^ranger  in  his  au- 
tobiography, "in  our  reading-room,  with  thirty  ot- 
forty  persons.  Suddenly  the  news  was  brought  in 
that  Bonaparte  had  returned  from  Egypt.  At  thft 
words  every  man  in  the  room  started  to  his  feet 
and  burst  into  one  long  shout  of  joy." 

From  the  moment  Bonaparte  set  foot  on  the  soil 


NINETEENTH  CENTURY  53 

of  France  he  was  her  master.  As  he  flew  from 
Fr6jus  to  Paris  by  means  of  fast  relay  stages,  all 
the  countryside  welcomed  him  with  open  arms.  In 
Lyons  they  gave  a  hastily  prepared  play  in  his 
honor,  entitled  "L'H^ros  d'Egypte."  Arrived  in 
Paris,  Bonaparte's  first  visit  was  to  Gohier,  thej^^^^S*® 
newly  elected  president  of  the  Directory,  an  intimate 
friend  of  Josephine  Bonaparte,  his  wife.  The  next 
day  the  Directory  received  the  young  general  in 
state  and  exonerated  him  from  blame  for  abandon- 
ing his  army  in  Egypt.  Siey^s,  the  strongest  mem- 
ber of  the  Directory,  at  once  went  over  to  the  new- 
comer, and  himself  prepared  the  coup  d'itat  which 
was  to  drive  his  fellow  directors  from  office.  Bona- 
parte first  fought  shy  of  him,  but  presently  came  to 
terms.  It  was  arranged  that  a  Triumvirate  should 
be  formed  with  Napoleon  Bonaparte  at  the  head. 
The  details  of  the  plot  were  intrusted  to  Napoleon's 
brother  Lucien,  now  president  of  the  Council  of 
Five  Hundred,  aided  by  Talleyrand,  Fouch^,  and 
the  generals  Murat  and  Lannes. 

On  the  morning  of  November  9,  or  the  18th  Bru-  Brumau« 
maire  according  to  the  revolutionary  calendar,  a 
crowd  of  generals  and  officers  met  at  Napoleon's 
house.  At  the  same  time  certain  members  of  the 
Council  held  an  early  meeting  of  the  Assembly  and 
passed  a  decree  giving  General  Bonaparte  com- 
mand of  all  the  troops  in  Paris.  They  then  ad- 
journed the  Council  to  St.  Cloud  outside  of  Paris. 
General  Bonaparte,  escorted  by  his  military 
friends,  at  once  took  charge  of  the  troops  that 
had   been   adroitly  stationed   at   the    various  com- 


64  A    HISTORY  OF    THE 

manding  points  of  the  city.     The  new  decree  waa 

read  aloud  and   he  was  acclaimed  as  chief  by  the 

host  of  officers  who  brandished  their  swords  before 

„    „        him.     Those  of  the  directors  who  were  in  the  plot 

The  Coup  *^ 

d'Etac  resigned,  and  the  others  were  put  under  arrest. 
When  the  deputies  met  on  the  next  day  in  St. 
Cloud,  they  wasted  their  time  by  administering  new 
oaths  of  allegiance  to  each  member  of  the  Assembly. 
Lucien  Bonaparte  addressed  them  from  the  Presi- 
dent's chair  until  Napoleon  appeared  upon  the 
scene.  The  Council  of  Ancients  received  the  dic- 
tator in  silence.  When  he  entered  the  Chamber  of 
Five  Hundred  he  was  greeted  with  a  roar  of  fury. 
Some  deputies  tried  to  drag  Lucien  from  his  chair 
while  others  surged  toward  Napoleon.  Then  he 
beckoned  to  his  soldiers,  and  General  Murat  ordered 
the  grenadiers  to  fix  their  bayonets.  The  deputies 
took  to  their  heels  and  the  hall  was  cleared.  At 
midnight  Bonaparte,  with  the  two  former  directors, 
Ducos  and  Si^y^s,  took  the  oath  of  office  as  consuls, 
their  joint  consulate  to  last  three  years. 

Bonaparte,  now  barely  thirty-one  years  old, 
speedily  made  himself  absolute  master.  His  fellow 
consuls  were  such  only  in  name.  When  the  Abb^ 
Sidy(is  drafted  a  constitution  with  certain  terms 
Bonaparte  which  might  havc  acted  as  a  check  on  the  First 
8ui*  °'  Consul,  Napoleon  brushed  the  flimsy  fabric  away 
with  a  stroke  of  the  pen.  "Was  there  ever  any- 
thing so  ridiculous?"  he  exclaimed.  "Wliat  man 
of  spirit  would  consent  to  hold  such  a  post?"  As 
Si^yds  said,  after  one  of  their  first  meetings,  "Be- 
hold, gentlemen,  we  have  a  master.     He  means  to 


NINETEENTH    CENTURY  65 

do  everything;    he    knows  how  to  do  everything, 
and  he  has  power  to  do  everything." 

In  the  new  French  Constitution  of  1799,  as  con- tionVf  1799 
ceived  by  Si^yds  and  amended  by  Napoleon,  all 
executive,  administrative  and  judicial  powers  were 
conferred  on  the  First  Consul  as  head  of  the  State. 
A  system  of  centralization  came  into  force  which 
has  remained  in  France  to  the  present  day.  its 
basis  was  universal  suffrage,  carefully  pruned  by 
letting  the  power  from  above  select  its  appointees 
from  the  host  of  candidates  chosen  by  popular  vote. 
All  governing  and  judicial  officers  were  appointed, 
with  all  their  subordinates,  by  the  central  govern- 
ment, and  were  directly  responsible  to  it.  These  offi- 
cers were  divided  into  ranks  as  strict  and  absolute  as 
those  of  the  army.  In  its  rational  order,  regularity 
of  function  and  apparent  stability,  the  new  govern- 
ment was  a  vast  improvement  on  the  old,  and  could 
not  fail  to  confer  great  and  rapid  benefits  upon  dis- 
ordered France.  It  was  a  working  government  from 
the  start,  and  its  work  was  accomplished  so  smoothly 
and  thoroughly  that  it  relieved  the  common  people 
from  all  need  of  taking  a  share  in  it.  On  December  Dictatorial 
15,  the  new  Constitution  was  offered  to  the  French  "^"'^ 
people  for  acceptance  or  rejection  with  this  famous 
concluding  phrase:  "Citizens,  the  Eevolution  is 
fixed  to  the  principles  which  commenced  it.  It 
is  finished."  The  new  harness  was  accepted  by 
a  popular  plebiscite  of  more  than  3,000,000  yeaa 
against  1,567  nays.  Thus  France  passed  from  a 
distinctly  democratic  government  to  the  most  abso- 
lute rule  yet  imposed  upon  her. 


56  A     HISTORY    OF    THE  Dec.  1799 

So  rapidly  was  popular  government  relinquished 

that  within  a  year  no  one  raised  a  hand  when  the 

First  Consul  quietly  removed  the  very  authors  of 

the  new  instrument,  his  fellow  consuls,  Siey^s  and 

Bonaparte  Ducos,   and  appointed  Cambac6r6s  and  Lebrun  in 

neS^°^     their    place.     By    means    of    life-senatorships    the 

Consuls 

former  consuls  were  paid  to  sink  into  instant  ob- 
scurity. To  Sidy^s,  the  covetous  abb6  of  the  E,e vo- 
lution, the  hereditary  estate  of  Crosne  was  granted 
in  addition. 

In  the  words  of  a  contemporary  epigram — 

"Sieyes  a  Bonaparte  a  fait  present  du  trone 
Sous  son  pompeux  debris  croyant  I'ensevelir. 
Bonaparte  a  Sieyes  a  fait  present  du  Crosne 
Pour  le  payer  et  ra\ilir. "  ' 

When  Bonaparte  selected  Dr.  Corvisart  for  his 
oorv^ieart  physician  he  little  knew  that  he  thereby  gave  a  new 
impetus  to  the  modern  science  of  medicine.  Dr. 
Corvisart  somewhat  surprised  the  First  Consul  by 
tapping  his  chest  by  way  of  examination.  With 
characteristic  shrewdness,  Bonaparte  recognized  the 
advantage  of  scientific  test  over  guesswork,  and 
engaged   Corvisart   to   be    his   regular   adviser. 

For  fifteen  years  Jean  Nicolas  de  Corvisart  had 
practiced  chest  tapping,  getting  little  but  abuse 
from  his  fellow  practitioners,  but  now  the  new 
method  came  into  instant  vogue.  Thus  was  laid 
the  foundation  of  modern  physical  diagnosis  in 
medicine. 

'  "Si^y^a  to  Bonaparte  made  a  present  of  a  throne 
Thinking  to  raise  biiuseli  upon  its  stool. 
Bonaparte  to  Sieyda  made  a  present  of  Cr6ne, 
Thus  the  priest  was  paid  and  made  a  fool." 


1800  Jan.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  bl 


B 


1800 


ONAPARTE'S   first   acts   were  conciliatory.  Bona- 
parte's 

He  drew  around  him  the  leaders  of  all  parties  C""<^^'f 


tory  Acts 

and  men  of  high  talents :  if  they  showed  them- 
selves submissive  they  were  rewarded  with  public 
honors.  Thus  he  honored  Volta,  the  inventor  of  the 
new  voltaic  pile,  and  La  Place,  the  great  astronomer,  voita,  La 
Gaudin,  the  greatest  financier  of  France,  was  in-oaudin 
trusted  with  the  public  moneys,  and,  encouraged  by 
Napoleon,  founded  the  Bank  of  France.  Tronchet 
and  two  of  the  most  eminent  lawyers  of  the  Revolu- 
tion were  appointed  at  the  head  of  a  commission  to 
codify  the  laws.  Aided  by  Napoleon,  they  drew 
up  an  admirable  civil  code  which  was  afterward 
known  as  the  "Code  Napoleon."     It  was  the  first  The  "Code 

Napoleon" 

working  code  effected  in  France,  and  has  stood  as 
a  standard  of  its  kind  throughout  western  Europe 
and  the  Latin  countries  since  its  adoption. 

Equally  well  calculated  was  the  First  Consul's 
indulgence  for  the  ancient  enemies  of  the  Revolu- 
tion— the  Royalists  and  the  Clergy.  Thus  he  re- 
stored the  freedom  of  religious  worship.  All  those 
emigrants  who  had  not  actually  borne  arms  against 
their   country  were  invited   to  return.     More   than  Return  of 

•'  theEmi- 

150,000,    most  of    whom   were   priests,    responded.  ^''^'^'^^ 
Bonaparte  m  person  went  to  the  Temple  Prison  to 


58  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Jan.  1800 

set  the  political  prisoners  free.  In  those  early  days 
of  his  rule  great  moderation  was  also  used  with  the 
Vendean  nobles  and  Breton  peasants  who  had  risen 
in  arms  against  the  Revolutionary  government.  A 
Proclamation  of  Amnesty  for  those  who  laid  down 
their  arms  was  issued  on  Christmas  Day. 
Overtures  ^'^  ^^®  samc  day  Napoleon,  with  his  own  hand, 
wrote  courteous  letters  to  the  King  of  England  and 
to  the  Emperors  of  Germany  and  Russia.  Diplo- 
matic steps  were  also  taken  to  conciliate  the  King 
of  Prussia  and  the  Pope. 

In  his  letter  to  George  III.  of  England,  Napo- 
leon asked:  "Are  there  no  means  of  coming  to 
an  understanding?"  The  rest  of  the  letter  was 
given  over  to  praises  of  peace. 
Paul  I.  of  ^^^  only  monarch  who  gave  a  willing  ear  to 
w"o^'*  Napoleon's  offers  of  friendship  was  Paul,  the  Czar 
of  Russia.  This  eccentric  ruler  publicly  drank  to 
the  health  of  Consul  Bonaparte  and  surrounded 
himself  with  portraits  of  the  successful  general. 
Suvarov,  the  Russian  general  who  had  won  such 
signal  victories  over  the  French,  was  sent  into 
disgrace.  The  Czar's  friendship  for  the  exiled 
Bourbon  prince,  Louis  XVIII.,  and  for  his  ally, 
England,  became  lukewarm  and  then  cold. 

The  Austrian  government  contented  itself  with 
politely  declining  to  entertain  Napoleon's  overtures 
to  the  German  Emperor.  When  the  Austrian  am- 
bassador ascertained  that  Napoleon  had  no  intention 
of  restoring  the  territory  yielded  by  Austria  in  the 
recent  treaty  of  Campo  Formio,  the  imperial  govern- 
ment at  Vienna  begged  to  be  excused  on  the  plea 


1800  Jan.  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  69 

that  it  could  not  negotiate  peace  without  consulting 
its  allies. 
England,  under  the  guidance  of  the  younger  Pitt,  England's 

Reply 

bluntly  rejected  all  offers  and  avowed  its  intention 
to  continue  the  war  until  the  Bourbons  should  be 
restored  to  the  throne  of  France^  It  was  a  curious 
State  paper  which  Lord  (xrenville  transmitted  to 
Count  Talleyrand,  I^apoleon's  Minister  for  Foreign 
Affairs: 

"Downing  Street,  January  4,  1800 

"Sir — I  have  received  and  laid  before  the  King 
the  two  letters  which  you  have  transmitted  to  me. 
His  Majesty,  seeing  no  reason  to  depart  from  those 
forms  which  have  long  been  established  in  Europe 
for  transacting  business  with  foreign  States,  has 
commanded  me  to  return  in  his  name  the  official 
answer  which  I  send  you  herewith.  I  have  the 
honor  to  be,  with  high  consideration,  sir,  your  most 
obedient,  humble  servant,  Grenville." 

The  letter  itself  recited  that  "the  best  and  most 
natural  pledge  of  the  reality  and  permanence  of 
peace  would  be  the  restoration  of  that  line  of  princes 
which  for  so  many  centuries  have  maintained  the 
French  nation  in  prosperity  at  home  and  in  con- 
sideration and  respect  abroad.  Such  an  event  would 
have  at  once  removed,  and  will  at  any  time  remove, 
all  obstacles  in  the  way  of  peace." 

Great  Britain's  curt  reply  was  like  a  blow  in  the  Effect  <» 
face  to  France.     Frenchmen  of  all  parties  burned  to 
avenge  the  insult.      At  one  stroke   Napoleon   had 
all  France  arrayed  behind  him.     The  cause  of  the 
Royalists  waned  from  that  day.     In  January  their 


60  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Feb.  1800 

leaders,  De  Chatillon  and  d'Antichamp,  signed  cod- 
ventions  of  peace  with  General  H^drouville  on  the 
Loire.  By  the  middle  of  February  followed  the 
submission  of  the  Eoyalist  Chouans  of  Jirittany 
and  Normandy.  Other  chiefs  in  the  Vendue  were 
beaten  by  General  Brune.  The  Prince  of  Cond6 
entered  British  service.  The  remaining  rebels  were 
proclaimed  as  outlaws,  and  a  price  was  set  on  the 
heads  of  the  leaders.  Count  Louis  de  Flotte,  who 
was  taken  alive,  was  shot  by  Napoleon's  orders. 
The  rank  and  file  were  quickly  enrolled  m  the  army 
and  sent  away  to  the  frontierSo 

Napoleon  celebrated  his  complete  suppression  of 

the  Koyalists  by  installing  himself   in  the  former 

ent^*s*tife  royal  palace  of  the  Tuileries.     To  veil  the  signifi- 

Tuiieries  pi-  i  ■       n  im-i- 

cance  of  this  step,  his  nrst  entry  into  the  Tuileries 
was  made  on  the  occasion  of  an  imposing  memorial 
service  in  honor  of  the  death  of  Washington.  The 
speaker  of  the  day  drew  a  comparison  between 
Washington  and  Bonaparte,  giving  the  preference 
to  the  latter.  In  obedience  to  Napoleon's  orders 
no  mention  whatever  was  made  of  Washington's 
brother-in-arms,  Lafayette. 

Relieved  of  internal  dangers,  the  First  Consul  was 
able  to  turn  his  attention  to  those  outside  of  France. 
Disquieting  news  was  not  lacking.  By  an  irony  of 
fate  General  Kl^ber's  indignant  remonstrance  to  the 
TheEKYp-  Dircctorv  against  the  treatment  meted  out  to  him  by 
General  Bonaparte  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  First 
Consul.  Napoleon  was  the  more  annoyed  at  Kl^ber's 
complaints  as  he  knew  them  to  be  true.  He,  too, 
while  in  Egypt,  had  written  to  the  Directory  that 


5800  March  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  61 

unless  reinforcement  reached  him  he  would  be  com- 
pelled to  sue  for  peace.  Now  he  found  himself  at  a 
loss  how  to  avert  the  sure  disaster  impending  over 
his  ambitious  projects  in  the  East  and  over  those 
that  had  followed  him  to  Egypt  to  execute  them. 
His  relief  expedition  was  bottled  up  by  the  British 
fleet  before  Brest.  Instead  of  reinforcements  Napo- 
leon despatched  a  letter  to  Kl^ber  assuring  him  of 
his  full  confidence,  and  therewith  left  him  to  his  fate. 

One  of  General  Kl^ber's  appeals  for  help  had 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  English.  It  encouraged 
them  to  repudiate  the  previous  agreement  to  let  the 
French  evacuate  Egypt  unmolested.  On  January 
18,  Lord  Keith,  commanding  the  British  fleet  in 
Egypt,  called  upon  General  Kldber  for  an  uncondi- 
tional surrender.  The  French  general  communi- 
cated the  text  of  the  British  demands  to  his  troops 
and  gave  out  this  rally:  "Soldiers,  such  insults  can 
only  be  avenged  by  a  victory.  Forward!"  The 
French,  early  next  morning,  fell  upon  the  sixty 
thousand  Turkish  soldiers  encamped  on  the  ruins 
of  Heliopolis  and  completely  routed  them.  Cairo  ^^^^^.i^  ^^ 
was  recaptured.  While  strengthening  the  French  ^^''^^p®'** 
position  in  Cairo,  General  Kl^ber  was  assassinated 
by  an  Arab  cutthroat.  The  command  fell  upon  an 
incapable  subordinate,  General  Menou.  From  that 
time  the  evacuation  of  Egypt  by  France  became 
inevitable. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  war  between  Austria  and  war  with 

Austria 

1  ranee  was  reopened.  To  provide  for  it  the  consuls 
revived  the  Revolutionary  measure  of  general  con- 
scription.    Every  male  citizen  over  the  age  of  eigh- 


62 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


May  1800 


Moreau 
seizes 


teen  and  under  the  age  of  sixty  was  called  into 
the  army.  A  reserve  corps  of  60,000  recruits  was 
thus  raised  and  placed  under  the  command  of  the 
First  Consul.  Through  his  foreign  agents  Napoleon 
levied  tribute  from  Genoa  and  Hamburg,  and  tried 
to  force  loans  from  Holland  and  Portugal  on  the 
security  of  their  own  jeopardized  territory.  By 
the  spring  of  1800  France  was  ready  to  strike. 

Toward   the  end  of  April  a  French  army  under 
Moreau  crossed  the  Ehine  and  seized  the  town  of 

Freiburg:  Freibiirg.  A  series  of  bloody  fights  followed.  The 
plan  for  opening  the  campaign,  as  arranged  between 
Moreau  and  Napoleon,  was  to  make  a  feint  against 
the  corps  of  Keinmayer  and  the  Austrian  right; 
and,  having  thus  drawn  Kray's  attention  to  that 
quarter,  to  concentrate  the  French  centre  and  left 
upon  the  imperial  centre,  break  through  the  Aus- 
trian line,  cut  off  their  communication  with  the 
Tyrol  and  Italy,  and  force  them  to  the  banks  of 
the  Danube.  On  May  3,  General  Moreau  defeated 
the  Austriaus  and  Germans  under  Kray  at  Engen, 
near  the  falls  of  Schaffhausen,  Nearly  20,000  men 
fell  on  both  sides.  On  May  5,  the  Austrians  and 
Bavarians,  five  miles  from  there,  were  beaten  in  an- 
other battle  at  Moeskirch.  They  lost  7,000  killed 
and  wounded,  1,600  prisoners,  and  a  part  of  their 
stores.      On  May  9,    the   loss  of  a  third  battle  at 

Biberach  Bibcrach  near  Ulm  cost  Kray  4,000  men  and  all  his 
stores.     On  May  11,  the  French  generals  Lecourbe 

Memmin-  ^ud  Ncy  took  the  small  town  of  Memmingen  after 
a  fierce  assault,  in  which  some  5,000  fell  on  either 
side.     The  Austrians,  having  suffered  four  bloody 


Engen 


Moeskirch 


gen 


1800  May  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  68 

reverses  within  eight  days,  fell  back  on  Ulm.    After 

a  short  respite  this  city  was  wrested  from  them  by 

the  French,  who  swam  the  river  and  treated  them 

to  another  bloody  fight  at  Hochstaedt  on  the  f amous  ^^^^5^^  °' 

old  battlefield  of  Blenheim.      Five  thousand  pris-^'^*^' 

oners  and  twenty  cannon  were  surrendered  to  the 

French. 

During  this  time  General  Massena,  who  had 
fought  so  well  in  Switzerland,  had  taken  charge 
of  the  French  army  in  Italy  and  was  hemmed  inlenoa"' 
at  Genoa.  Wapoleon,  instead  of  taking  measures 
to  relieve  the  garrison  by  sending  an  army  along  the 
coastwise  roads  on  which  he  had  won  such  successes 
before,  determined  to  deliver  a  counter  stroke  in  the 
rear  of  the  Austrian  army.  This  could  only  be 
done  by  crossing  the  Alps. 

Leaving  the  government  in  Paris  to  his  colleagues 
he  took  charge  of  the  new  army  of  the  reserve  and 
manoeuvred  with  it  in  various  directions.  He  de- 
ceived Massena  as  well  as  the  Austrians.  All 
thought  that  he  would  surely  descend  upon  Genoa. 
The  Austrians  accordingly  drove  the  French  back 
upon  Genoa,  and  its  harbor  was  blockaded  by  an 
English  fleet. 

In  the  third  week  of  May,  after  Marescot  and  his 
engineers   had   prepared   the  way,   Bonaparte   sud-  crossesThe 

'  Alps 

denly  took  the  main  body  of  his  army  over  the 
Great  St.  Bernard  Pass,  while  smaller  detachments 
crossed  over  the  passes  of  the  Little  St.  Bernard, 
Simplon,  St.  Gotthard,  Mont  Cenis  and  Mont 
Genevre.  The  march,  though  toilsome,  presented 
no  extraordinary  difl&culties,  till  the  leading  column 


64  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  june  18OO 

arrived  at  St.  Pierre:  but  from  that  village  to  tiae 
summit  it  was  painful  and  laborious  in  the  highest 
degree.  A  hundred  men  were  harnessed  to  each 
gun,  incased  in  a  hollow  log,  and  they  were  soon 
relieved. 
Ford  of  St.     The  worst  obstacle  encountered  was  at  the  moun- 

Bard 

tain  ford  of  St.  Bard,  which  commanded  the  only- 
passable  road.  Here  the  men  had  to  pass  in  single 
file  over  a  goat  path  high  above  the  ion.  The 
whole  passage  of  the  Alps  was  accomplished  in 
four  days  without  any  serious  mishap  or  confusion. 
This  has  always  been  accounted  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  military  feats  of  modern  times,  surpassing 
the  ancient  Alpine  exploits  of  Hannibal  and  Julius 
Ctesar. 

The  advance  guard  of  the  French  army  poured 
down  into  the  plains  of  Piedmont  before  the  Aus- 
trians  could  dispute  their  entrance  into  Italy.  Old 
General  M^las,  who  had  pursued  a  French  division 
to  Nice,  hurried  to  Turin  with  a  few  thousand  Aus- 
trians.  From  Turin  he  sent  word  to  General  Ott, 
whom  he  had  left  before  the  walls  of  Genoa,  to  raise 
the  siege  of  that  city  and  come  to  his  support  with 
all  his  men.  Ott  could  not  tear  himself  away  from 
Fall  of  so  sure  a  prey.  Before  Masseua  struck  his  flag 
on  June  5,  fifteen  thousand  of  the  people  within 
the  walls  of  Genoa  had  died  of  hunger.  Mass^na's 
stubborn  resistance  served  the  purpose  of  keeping 
the  Austrian  forces  divided.  It  cost  tliem  nearly  as 
dear  as  a  defeat. 

Napoleon,  instead  of  marching  on  Genoa,  as  was 
still  expected  of  him,  turned  to  the  east  and  thrust 


1800 June  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  65 

himself  between  the  Austrians  and  their  strongholds 
in  the  rear.  Lannes  defeated  one  Austrian  force  at 
Montebello.     Mu rat  took  care  of  another.     Nothing  Battle  of 

MoDtebeilo 

remained  for  Melas  but  to  escape  to  Genoa  or  make 
a  bold  break  through  the  French  lines.  The  arrival 
of  Ott's  forces,  at  last,  making  his  numbers  slightly 
superior  to  those  of  Napoleon,  encouraged  the  aged 
Austrian  leader  to  stake  all  on  a  pitched  battle. 

On  the  12tli  of  June  Napoleon  advanced  westward 
from  Milan  and  Piacenza,  through  Stradella.  So 
anxious  was  he  lest  Melas  should  make  good  his 
escape  that  he  detached  a  division  of  6,000  under 
his  special  favorite  Desaix,  who  had  just  arrived 
from  Egypt  with  his  aides-de-camp,  Savary  and 
Rapp.  They  were  to  head  off  any  possible  move- 
ment toward  Genoa.  Early  next  morning  the  Aus- 
trians came  forth  from  Alessandria  and  attacked  the 
French  at  Marengo.  Their  onslaught  was  so  impetu-  Marengo 
OU8  that  it  carried  all  before  it.  At  the  end  of  seven 
hours'  fighting  the  French  forces  were  in  full  retreat. 
Tired  out,  the  aged  Austrian  general  rode  back  into 
Alessandria  to  despatch  tidings  of  his  victory.  The 
pursuit  of  the  French  was  left  to  General  Zach. 

Far  in  the  distance,  nearly  twenty  miles  away, 
Desaix's  division  had  halted  at  the  first  sound  of 
the  cannon.  As  the  distant  booming  increased, 
Desaix  turned  his  column  and  countermarched  for 
Alessandria,  on  the  double  quick.  He  had  covered 
half  the  stretch  when  he  was  met  by  a  despatch  rider 
from  Napoleon  summoning  him  to  the  relief.  Fur- 
ther couriers  urged  him  to  the  utmost  haste.  At 
last  his  panting  vanguard  arrived  upon  the  battle- 


66  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Summer  1800 

field  at  sunset,  only  in  time  to  meet  their  retreating 
comrades. 

Desaix  galloped  up  to  his  commander  and 
said: 

"I  see  that  the  battle  is  lost.  I  am  afraid  I  can 
do  no  more   for  you  than  to  secure  your  retreat." 

"Not  so,"  replied  Napoleon.  "Charge  with 
your  column!  The  disordered  troops  will  rally  in 
your   rear." 

Such  was  Napoleon's  own  version  in  after  years. 
Others,  at  the  time,  said  that  Desaix  on  his  own 
motion  offered  to  retrieve  the  fallen  fortunes  of 
his  chief. 

Whatever  he  may  have  said,  Desaix  at  once 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  his  first  two  half- 
brigades  and  charged  into  the  victorious  Austrians. 
Desaix"^  He  was  shot  through  the  heart,  but  his  men  charged 
on.  At  this  moment  Colonel  Kellerman,  with  eight 
hundred  French  dragoons  who  had  halted  behind  a 
wood,  dashed  furiously  into  the  Austrian  flank  as  it 
swept  forward.  The  Austrians  wavered  and  broke. 
Desaix's  main  body  and  rearguard  fell  upon  them. 
French  detachments  from  all  sides  returned  to  the 
fray.  Melas'  victory  turned  into  defeat  for  Zach. 
He  surrendered  with  5,000  Hungarians. 

Melas  was  so  upset  by  the  unexpected  reverse  that 
wIth'Aus!  '^®  sued  for  an  armistice  under  humiliating  terms. 
All  Austrian  fortresses  in  Northern  Italy  west  of 
the  Mincio  were  abandoned  to  the  French.  After 
the  battle  Napoleon  wrote:  "All  the  chances  of  suc- 
cess were  with  the  Austrian  army."  Referring  to 
Desaix  he  said,  "Victory  at  such  a  price  is  dear.'* 


1800  Autumn  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  67 

To  Kellerman  he  said  curtly,  "You  made  a  good 
charge."  In  Paris,  French  consols  rose  from  29 
to  35  points.  Before  the  18th  Brumaire  they  had 
stood  at  11.     Napoleon  returned  to  Paris. 

The  Austrian  people  were  dismayed  at  the  disas- 
trous turn  taken  by  their  war  with  France.  But 
the  Ministry  of  Thugut  stood  firm.  On  the  day  the 
news  of  Marengo  reached  Vienna,  Thugut  in  a  formal 
treaty  accepted  England's  offer  of  a  money-subsidy 
to  prolong  the  war.  Yet,  in  deference  to  public 
clamor,  and  to  gain  time.  Count  St.  Julien  was  sent 
as  an  envoy  to  Paris  to  ascertain  the  French  terms 
for  peace.  They  tried  to  patch  up  a  naval  armistice 
with  England,  but  the  negotiations  fell  through.    In  ^oS'of'°" 

TLI  o  If  Q 

the  middle  of  September,  the  garrison  of  Malta,  hav- 
ing been  entirely  reduced  by  famine,  capitulated,  on 
condition  of  being  sent  to  France  and  not  serving 
again  until  regularly  exchanged.  The  noble  for- 
tress, with  its  unrivalled  harbor  and  impregnable 
walls,  was  permanently  annexed  to  the  British  do- 
minions. The  English  also  made  themselves  mas- 
ters, in  the  course  of  this  year,  of  Surinam,  Berbice, 

Dutch 

St.  Eustache  and  Demerara,  Dutch  settlements  in  the  Losses 
West  Indies  and  on  the  mainland  adjoining  them. 
The  Austrian  emperor  finally  was  constrained  to 
apply  for  an  extension  of  the  armistice  on  laud. 
For  this  concession  he  had  to  yield  Munich  and 
Ingolstadt  to  the  French  in  Bavaria.  In  the  end 
Count  St.  Julien's  arrangements  were  repudiated. 
The  gain  in  time  was  turned  to  no  material  ad- 
vantage by  the  Austrians.  In  all,  they  had  230,000 
soldiers  in  the  field.     The  French  maintained  five 


C8  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Winter  1800 

Strong  armies,  numbering  altogether  250,000  men. 
They  controlled  the  Rhine,  Alps,  Upper  Danube 
and  the  Po.  The  portfolio  of  the  French  war  de 
Thu  t  partment  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  Carnot.  Dis- 
Be^il^^  content  at  this  state  of  affairs  grew  so  acute  in 
Hungary  and  Austria  that  the  Thugut  Ministry 
had  to  resign. 

In  the  month  of  November,  Napoleon  announced 
the  conclusion  of  the  armistice,  and  on  the  28th  of 
that  month  both  parties  were  prepared  to  fight. 

Archduke  Johann,  a  youth  of  eighteen,  now  took 
command  of  the  Austrian  army  in  the  valley  of  the 
Inn.  Moreau  held  the  high  plateau  of  Munich  and 
the  banks  of  the  Isar.  The  young  archduke  had  a 
pet  plan  of  surrounding  the  French  and  cutting  off 
their  supplies.  As  soon  as  the  armistice  expired, 
on  the  third  day  of  December,  during  a  heavy  fall 
of  snow,  he  manoeuvred  his  army  into  the  rough 
Hohen-      country  around  Hohenlinden,     Moreau  waited  until 

liDdea 

the  Austrians,  amid  fatal  confusion,  had  penetrated 
into  the  heart  of  the  forest  and  had  become  entangled 
with  some  of  his  skirmishers.  The  Archduke,  it  was 
said,  believed  them  to  be  the  French  rearguard  and 
began  to  rejoice  over  his  easy  victory.  Then  Moreau 
fell  upon  the  bewildered  Austrians  with  his  whole 
force  from  front,  flanks  and  rear.  The  slaughter 
was  appalling.  Ten  thousand  Austrians  were  taken 
prisoners,  among  them  three  general  officers.  Eighty 
cannon  and  two  hundred  caissons  were  among  the 
loot.  The  scattered  remnants  of  the  Archduke's 
army  were  chased  across  the  rivers  Inn,  Salza  and 
Traun  straight  to  Vienna.     They  tried  to  make  a 


1800 Winter  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  69 

Stand   at  Herdorf   and   again   at   Schwanstadt,  but 
were  only  the  more  thoroughly  routed. 

This  overwhelming  victory  made  a  deep  impres- 
sion on  the  men  of  that  day.  It  moved  the  English 
poet  Campbell  to  write  this  poem,  which  has  become 
a  classic : 

HOHENLINDEN  CampbeU'a 

Stanz&s 

On  Linden,  when  the  sun  was  low, 

All  bloodless  lay  the  untrodden  snow. 

And  dark  as  winter  was  the  flow 

Of  Iser,  rolling  rapidly. 

But  Linden  saw  another  sight. 
When  the  drum  beat  at  dead  of  night, 
Commanding  fires  of  death  to  light 
The  darkness  of  her  scenery. 

By  torch  and  trumpet  fast  arrayed. 
Each  horseman  drew  his  battle  blade, 
And  furious  every  charger  neighed, 
To  join  the  dreadful  revelry. 

Then  shook  the  hills  with  thunder  riven. 
Then  rushed  the  steed  to  battle  driven, 
And  louder  than  the  bolts  of  heaven 
Far  flashed  the  red  artillery. 

But  redder  yet  that  light  shall  glow 
On  Linden's  hills  of  stained  snow, 
And  bloodier  yet  the  torrent  flow 
Of  Iser,  rolling  rapidly. 

'Tis  morn,  but  scarce  yon  level  sun 
Can  pierce  the  war-clouds,  rolling  duj2^ 
Where  furious  Frank,  and  fiery  Hun, 
Shout  in  their  sulphurous  canopy. 

The  combat  deepens.     On,  ye  brave. 
Who  rush  to  glory,  or  the  grave! 
Wave,  Munich!  all  thy  banners  wave' 
And  charge  with  all  thy  chivdiry  I 


70  A   HISTORY   OF   THE  Uec.  laoo 

Ah,  few  shall  part  where  many  meet! 
The  snow  shall  be  their  winding  sheet. 
And  every  turf  beneath  their  feet 
8haU  be  a  soldier's  sepulchra 


In  the  same  time  the  three  other  French  armies 
had  woQ  laurels  of  their  own.  On  the  day  of  Ho* 
henlinden,  General  Augereau  gained  an  important 
advantage  near  Bamberg.  General  Macdonald,  un- 
dismayed by  the  rigors  of  winter  and  a  series  of  dis- 
Passage  of  ^^^''^'^^  avalanches,  crossed  his  army  over  into  Italy 
spiuegeD  across  the  dizzy  heights  of  the  Spluegen  Pass,  and 
beat  back  his  enemies. 

Vienna  was  struck  with  terror.  Archduke  Charles 
took  command  of  the  army  and  tried  to  infuse  new 
courage  into  his  troops.  On  viewing  the  French  posi- 
tion before  Vienna  he  was  quick  to  sue  for  an  armis- 
Treatyof  tlcc.  It  was  coucludcd  at  Stcycr  on  Christmas  Day. 
By  its  terms  the  Austrians  practically  agreed  to  the 
provisions  of  the  former  treaty  of  Campo  Formio, 
which  they  had  repudiated  earlier  in  the  year.  Be- 
yond that  they  gave  up  additional  territory,  relying 
on  Moreau's  promises  of  restitution.  William  Pitt, 
sensible  of  Austria's  alarming  situation,  released  the 
German  emperor  from  the  terms  of  his  alliance  with 
England. 

Napoleon  showed  himself  disposed  to  be  lenient 
with  his  vanquished  foe  for  the  sake  of  peace.  The 
kingdom  of  Naples  was  saved  for  the  moment  by  the 
intercession  of  the  Czar  of  Eussia.  Napoleon  also 
concluded  definite  peace  with  the  United  States, 
and  entered  into  negotiations  with  Spain  for  the 
retrocession  of  Louisiana.      England  was  now  left 


JSOODec.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  71 

aione  in  her  struggle  with  France.  Not  only  had 
her  allies  fallen  off,  but  new  enemies  had  arisen. 
In  distant  India,  Seringapatam  had  to  be  taken  at  ,^g^p^^^®^' 
the  point  of  the  sword.  Emperor  Paul  of  Russia, 
exasperated  by  the  Duke  of  York's  mismanagement 
of  the  Anglo-Russian  attack  on  Holland,  and  piqued 
at  England's  blockade  and  seizure  of  the  Isle  of 
Malta,  of  which  he  styled  himself  the  Grand  Mas- 
ter, had  gone  over  to  Napoleon.  On  September  9, 
the  Czar  seized  all  the  English  vessels  in  his  ports 
and  imprisoned  their  crews.  His  quarrel  was  sec- 
onded by  the  other  Northern  kingdoms,  which 
strove  to  resist  the  harsh  measures  of  the  Brit- 
ish at  sea.  Foremost  among  them  was  Denmark, 
which  had  just  lost  the  frigate  "Freya,"  on  account 
of  her  captain's  refusal  to  submit  to  British  search. 
Late  in  1800  the  Armed  Neutrality  of  1780  was  re- 
vived in  this  new  Northern  Maritime  League,  the^or^tbern 
conventions  of  which  were  signed,  on  December  ^^^^^^^ 
16j  by  Russia,  Sweden,  Denmark,  and,  later,  Prus- 
sia. Gustavus  IV.,  the  young  king  of  Sweden, 
convoked  a  Riksdag  to  raise  money.  Its  sessions 
were  so  stormy  that  he  never  repeated  the  experi- 
ment. On  his  own  authority  the  king  mortgaged 
the  Swedish  city  of  Wismar  to  the  Duke  of  Meck- 
lenburg for  one  hundred  years  for  the  sum  of  two 
million  dollars.  The  determination  of  the  League 
to  resist  the  seizure  of  French  goods  on  board  their 
own  merchantmen  was  received  by  England  as  a 
general  declaration  of  war. 

Such   was  the  close  of  the  Eighteenth  Century. 
Great  changes  had  occurred  throughout  Europe  as 


72  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Dec.  1800 

War  with   the  Fcsult  of  the  incessant  wars  of  the  last  decade. 

EDgland 

In  England,  owing  to  the  increased  annual  expen- 
diture of  £60,000,000  for  the  war,  the  debt  of  the 
nation  had  doubled,  rising  from  £244,000,000  to 
£484,000,000.  The  British  navy  bad  been  nearly 
doubled  in  strength  and  now  numbered  eight  hun- 
dred vessels  with  120,000  fighting  men.  On  land 
the  fighting  strength  of  Great  Britain  had  grown 
from  80,000  to  nearly  half  a  million.  These  bur- 
British      dens  could  not  have  been  borne  but  for  a  corre- 

Besources 

sponding  increase  in  British  trade.  The  imports 
and  exports  together  had  grown  from  forty  to  sev- 
enty million  pounds  sterling.  Yet  it  is  to  be  noted 
that  during  the  last  year  of  the  Eighteenth  Century 
the  Bank  of  England  paid  out  no  coin.  The  poor 
harvest  of  1799  resulted  in  famine  prices.  In  Lon- 
don and  elsewhere  the  poor  people  rioted  for  bread. 
One  poor  devil,  discharged  from  the  army,  attempted 
to  assassinate  the  king. 

In  Paris,  too,  an  attempt  was  made  to  blow  up  the 
First  Consul  with  an  infernal  machine.  It  served 
as  a  pretext  to  banish  a  number  of  inconvenient 
Jacobins.  Cerachi  and  Demerville,  two  determined 
Jacobins,  charged  with  inciting  the  plot,  and  St. 
Hegent  and  Carbon,  who  were  actually  concerned 
in  it,  were  sentenced  to  death  and  executed.  The 
old  French  debt  had  been  repudiated,  and  a  new 
Finances  debt  Contracted  for  fifty-five  millions.  The  expen- 
ditures of  the  first  year  of  the  Consulate  amounted 
to  twenty-two  millions.  This  paid  for  an  aggregate 
army  of  nearly  a  million  men  in  the  field.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  French  navy  had  been  reduced  by 


1800  Dec.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  78 

one-half  and  was  still  dwindling.  The  tricolor  had, 
been  chased  from  the  seas  by  the  combined  efforts 
of  British  and  American  sailors.  A  relief  expedi- 
tion for  Egypt  was  bottled  up  at  Brest.  The  for- 
eign trade  of  France  was  practically  extinct.  All 
Europe,  in  fact,  had  suffered  immeasurably  from 
the  long  war. 

Across  the  seas,  in  America,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  new  century  opened  serene  and  full  of  bright 
hopes  for  the  future.  The  last  Presidential  election  iffafrs^" 
under  the  old  electoral  system  had  brought  only 
a  passing  cloud.  It  was  held  in  the  fall  of  1800. 
Thomas  Jefferson,  of  Virginia,  and  Aaron  Burr,  of 
New  Jersey,  were  the  candidates  of  the  Eepublican- 
Democratic  party  against  the  Federalists  John  Adams 
and  C.  C.  Pinckney.  The  contest  was  practically  de- 
cided in  May,  1800,  when  the  Legislature  of  the  State 
of  New  York  was  found*to  have  a  Eepublican  ma- 
jority. Four  years  previous,  the  State  of  New  York 
had  given  most  of  its  votes  to  Adams.  At  this  elec- 
tion Jefferson  and  Burr  tied  with  73  votes  each, 
while  John  Adams  only  got  65  votes.  For  a  long 
time  Congress,  which  had  the  decision,  stood  even 
for  Jefferson  and  Burr.  Thirty-one  tie  ballots  were 
taken.  At  last  Jefferson  received  the  votes  of  ten  jefferson 
States,  leaving  four  for  Burr  and  two  blank.  Under  Burr 
the  old  law  Burr  as  the  next  strongest  candidate  was 
declared  Vice-President.  A  grave  peril  to  the  young 
country  was  thus  averted.  Burr  never  got  over  this 
disappointment.  The  tragedies  of  his  later  life  were 
largely  due  to  the  resentments  begotten  in  him  by 
the  failure  of  more  legitimate  ambitions. 

XTXrh  Century— Vol.  1—4 


74 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


Dec.  1809 


Jefferson 
takes  the 
Oath  of 
Qfflce 


Thomas  Jefferson  took  the  oath  of  office  in  the 
new  Capitol,  ridiculed  as  a  palace  in  the  woods. 
The  building  stood  on  a  hill  in  the  city  of  Wash- 
ington, then  nothing  but  a  straggling  village  of  a 
few  hundred  inhabitants.  It  provoked  comment 
at  the  time  that  Jefferson,  who  preferred  republi- 
can simplicity  in  all  things,  wore  "long  pantaloons, 
an  innovation  of  the  French  Be  volution." 


Painted  by  Wilhelm  Kaulbach 


eOETHE   IN  WEIMAR 


^IXth  Cent.y  Vol.  0>ie 


JSWJ&n.  KDfETEEXTH   CESTURY  lb 


1801 

THE  BIRTH  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  was 
most  elaborately  celebrated  at  Weimar. 
During  the  year  1800  the  two  poets,  Goethe 
and  Schiller,  had  experienced  a  change  of  heart 
in  regard  to  the  trne  beginning  of  the  century.  ^ff^^°^ 
Ko?r  they  were  at  last  in  accord  with  their  patron  ^°*"^ 
Carl  August,  the  Duke  of  Weimar.  The  young 
poet,  Leo  von  Seckendorf,  who  was  afterward 
killed  in  battle,  was  most  enthusiastic.  He  wanted 
the  New  Year  to  be  celebrated  by  special  produc- 
tions of  the  latest  dramatic  works  of  Goethe  and 
Schiller,  with  musical  performances  of  Haydn's 
new  "Creation,"  and  Gluck's  "Iphigenia."  But 
the  Duke  took  the  defeat  of  the  Germans  at  Ho- 
henlinden  so  ill  that  he  was  in  no  mood  for  merry-  interestof 
making.  Shortly  before  New  Year  Schiller  had  top^S*" 
write  to  Goethe  at  Jena:  "The  Duke,  so  we  have  been 
informed,  a  few  days  ago,  gave  it  to  be  understood 
that  he  is  very  much  opposed  to  our  proposed  cen- 
tenary festivities.  You  know  what  this  means.  .  .  . 
In  God's  name  let  us  bury  ourselves  in  our  poetry 
and  try  to  produce  things  from  within,  as  we  have 
BO  little  success  in  producing  from  without." 

Goethe  was  not  so  easily  foiled.  He  was  translat- 
ing Voltaire's  "Tancred"  at  the  Duke  of  Weimar's 
summer  castle  at  Jena.     He  had  with  him  Friedrich 


76  A    HISTORY    or    THE  ^au.  reoi 

Wilhelm  Schelling,  the  great  German  philosopher, 
then  but  in  his  twenty-fifth  year.  A  few  days  be- 
fore their  return  to  Weimar,  about  Christmas  time, 
Goethe  wrote  to  Schiller,  "I  shall  bring  Schelling 
with  me  so  as  to  have  a  strong  support  for  our  cen* 
tenary  plans."  The  Duke  gave  in.  A  record  of 
the  event  is  preserved  in  an  entertaining  letter  of 
Schiller  to  Koerner,  the  father  of  the  poet  who 
at  Weimar  later  lost  his  life  in  the  wars.  In  the  afternoon  of 
January  1,  1801,  Haydn's  "Creation"  was  sung  and 
the  Duke's  players  at  the  court  theatre  gave  a 
mask  written  by  Goethe  for  the  occasion.  A 
masquerade  ball  at  court  finished  the  evening. 
Some  of  the  most  enlightened  spirits  of  Germany 
were  present.  Goethe,  who  was  then  in  his  prime, 
was  hailed  as  Olympian  Jupiter.  In  the  throng  of 
maskers  were  the  poets  Schiller,  Herder,  Wieland 
and  Von  Seckendorf.  With  them  were  Schelling, 
the  philosopher,  Hufland,  the  great  physician,  and 
Heinrich  Steffens,  the  learned  Dane.  Among  the 
ladies  were  the  Duchess  Louise,  the  lively  Dowager 
Duchess  Amalie,  with  the  beautiful  Frau  von  Stein, 
Amalie  von  Imhof,  the  poetess.  Corona  Schroeter, 
the  singer,  and  Henrietta  Jageraan,  the  tragedienne, 
with  Goethe's  latest  favorite,  the  lovely  Countess 
von  Egloffstein.  It  was  a  notable  gathering.  Next 
day  Goethe   had   a    falling    out  with   his    oldtime 

Illness  of  n-  1  ,1  'in 

Goethe  friend  l^rau  von  Stein,  and  was  taken  seriously  ill. 
For  a  long  time  he  lay  unconscious  and  the  best 
physicians  of  Germany  were  summoned  to  attend 
him.  All  literary  Germany  held  its  breath  until 
the  crisis  was  safely  over. 


ISOiJan.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  77 

More  lasting  tributes  to  the  new  century  were  the 
opening  ceremonies  of  the  Peace  Conference  at 
Luneville  and  Pitt's  iBnal  accomplishment  of  the 
Union  of  Ireland  and  England.  This  event  was  union  ot 
celebrated  in  London  and  Dublin  by  the  ringing  of  ^"''^'"®'"<* 
bells,  salutes  of  guns  and  the  hoisting  of  the  new 
imperial  standard  over  the  Tower.  To  accomplish 
this  great  result  Pitt  had  promised  to  remove  those 
obnoxious  laws  against  Roman  Catholics  that  drove 
Ireland  into  rebellion  in  1798.  Now  one  hundred 
Irish  members  were  taken  into  the  Commons  and 
free  trade  between  England  and  Ireland  began. 

The  terms  of  the  treaty  agreed  to  at  Luneville  ^^*^^^,'g 
changed  the  map  of  Europe  materially.  First  of  all 
the  cessions  wrested  from  Austria  at  Campo  Formio 
were  confirmed.  All  German  territory  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Rhine  was  ceded  to  France.  The  Ger- 
man princes  who  lost  by  this  arrangement  were  to 
be  indemnified  with  other  possessions  taken  from 
Italy,  the  Free  Hanseatic  cities  and  other  weak  land- 
holders. It  meant  the  disintegration  of  the  old 
German  Empire.  The  net  loss  to  Germany  was 
25,180  square  miles  with  nearly  3,500,000  inhabi- 
tants. The  provisions  for  indemnity  proved  an 
apple  of  discord.  For  years  afterward  a  horde  of 
German  princelings  haunted  the  antechambers  of 
Bonaparte,  outbidding  one  another  with  concessions 
and  bribes.  Spain  lost  Parma  and  Louisiana. 
Tuscany  was  merged  with  Parma.  Formal  recog- 
nition was  given  to  the  French  foster  Republics 
of  Batavia,  Helvetia,  Liguria,  and  the  Cisalpine 
Republic. 


78 


A    HISTORY    OF   THE 


March  1801 


Peace  of 
Florence 


Pitt 

Resigns 


Battle  of 
▲boukir 


The  Peace  of  Luneville  was  followed  by  treaties 
at  Madrid;  and  the  Peace  of  Florence,  between 
France  and  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  was  concluded 
on  March  28,  after  a  number  of  Italian  cities  had 
been  overrun  by  the  French  army.  Naples  ceded 
her  principalities  in  central  Italy  and  undertook  to 
close  her  ports  against  all  vessels  of  Great  Britain 
and  her  ally,  Turkey.  Thus  Napoleon  took  up  a 
new  weapon  of  offence  against  England's  shipping — 
the  Continental  Embargo. 

In  England,  meanwhile,  the  days  of  the  younger 
Pitt's  ministry  were  numbered.  Early  in  the  year 
the  first  United  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  met  in  London.  Pitt  tried  to  carry  out  his 
promise  to  remove  all  political  disabilities  from  the 
Irish  Catholics.  This  met  with  George  III.'s  oppo- 
sition. Powerless  to  move  a  ruler  who  staked  his 
soul  on  the  letter  of  his  oath  of  coronation,  Pitt 
resigned.  With  him  went  Grenville,  Dundas  (later 
Lord  Melville),  and  Windham.  The  new  Prime 
Minister  was  Addington,  the  Speaker  of  the  House 
of  Commons. 

Addington's  Cabinet  found  themselves  with  a 
general  declaration  of  war  on  their  hands.  Willy- 
nilly  they  had  to  prepare  for  hostilities.  An  em- 
bargo had  been  declared  on  the  ships  of  all  the 
northern  powers.  The  French  army  in  Egypt  was 
still  unsubdued  and  a  French  fleet  lay  watching 
for  a  chance  to  go  to  its  relief.  On  March  8  a 
British  fleet  under  Sir  Ealph  Abercrombie  debarked 
18,000  troops  at  Aboukir.  On  March  13  a  battle 
was    fought   with   the    weak    French    army   under 


1801  March  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  79 

Menou,  in  which,  the  French  were  worsted.  On 
March  17,  Sir  Sydney  Smith,  the  hero  of  the  Siege 
of  Acre,  seized  the  lake  of  Madieh  and  reduced  the 
forts  of  Aboukir.  On  March  20  a  pitched  battle 
was  waged  between  15,000  Englishmen  and  9,000 
Frenchmen.  Abercrombie,  the  British  commander,  ^ 
was  mortally  wounded.  The  French  lost  heavily 
and  were  thrown  back  upon  Alexandria  and  Cairo.  I'lexaQdha 
A  large  Turkish  army  landed  at  Aboukir  and  the 
French  were  invested  in  Alexandria. 

At  home  another  British  fleet  was  preparing  to 
strike  a  blow  at  Eussia.  All  was  changed  by  the 
sudden  death  of   Emperor  Paul    of   Hussia.     This  Death  of 

^  Paul  I. 

eccentric  monarch  had  ruled  but  four  years.  Of 
late  his  conduct  had  excited  general  comment. 
Thus,  on  December  30,  1800,  the  St.  Petersburg 
"Court    Gazette"    contained    the    following    item: 

"His  Majesty,  the  Emperor,  perceiving  that  the 
European  powers  cannot  come  to  an  accommodation, 
and  wishing  to  put  an  end  to  a  war  which  has  raged 
fourteen  years,  has  conceived  the  idea  of  appointing 
a  place  to  which  he  will  invite  the  other  potentates 
to  engage  together  with  himself  in  single  combat  on 
lists  which  shall  be  marked  out;  for  which  purpose 
they  shall  bring  with  them,  to  act  as  their  esquires, 
umpires  and  heralds,  tlieir  most  enlightened  minis- 
ters and  able  generals,  as  Thugut,  Pitt  and  Bern- 
storff.  He  will  bring  on  his  part  Count  Pahlen  and 
Kutuzov." 

Kotzebue,  the  famous  dramatist  and  political 
writer  of  those  days,  published  this  comment:  "It 
is  not  known  whether  this  rumor  can  be  depended 


80  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  March  1801 

upon.  Meanwhile  it  does  not  seem  altogether  with- 
out foundation,  as  it  bears  the  mark  of  what  has 
often  been  imputed  to  him." 
Emperor  The  Czar's  next  surprise  was  to  order  Louis 
Vagaries  XVIII.,  the  French  pretender,  to  leave  his  refuge 
at  the  Eussian  town  of  Mitau.  At  the  same  time 
he  cancelled  the  handsome  annuity  granted  to 
the  Bourbon  prince.  About  the  middle  of  March 
the  Czar  gave  to  his  minister  a  warrant  for  impris- 
oning or  banishing  the  Czarina,  his  wife,  and  his 
two  sons,  Alexander  and  Constantine.  Count  Pahlen 
showed  the  warrant  to  the  two  princes  and  said: 
"Your  father  is  ruining  the  country  and  himself. 
He  will  now  destroy  you  if  this  is  to  be  borne." 
He  suggested  that  something  must  be  done  to  stop 
the  Czar's  course.  The  Czarovitch  left  all  to  him. 
On  the  night  of  March  24  thirty  of  the  most  influ- 
ential members  of  the  court,  after  a  long  carouse, 
forcibly  entered  the  Czar's  bedroom.  They  de- 
manded his  abdication.  While  wrangling  over  this 
matter.  Prince  Zubov,  one  of  the  former  favorites  of 
Empress  Catherine,  got  into  a  violent  dispute  with 
The  Czars  the  Czar.     Seizing  a  chair  he  struck  the  Emperor 

▲ssassina-  '■ 

tion  down.      Then  the  others  jumped  on  the  prostrate 

Czar  and  beat  and  strangled  him  to  death.  Next 
morning  Alexander  announced  in  an  imperial  proc- 
lamation that  his  father  had  died  of  a  stroke  of 
apoplexy.  After  his  coronation  the  assassins  were 
advised  to  leave  court  and  went  into  retirement. 

Paul's  death  came  just  in  time  for  Russia.  On 
March  12,  a  British  fleet  of  eighteen  ships  of  the 
line,    four    frigates    and    a    number    of    gunboats, 


1801  March  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  81 

amounting  in  all  to  fifty-two  sail,  left  Yarmouth 
under  the  command  of  Sir  Hyde  Parker.  Nelson 
went  with  him  as  his  first  flag-officer.  The  imme- 
diate objective  point  was  Copenhagen.  They  bore 
with  them  a  British  ambassador  who  had  instruc-fjJ.?,'*°o^ 
tions  to  allow  Denmark  forty-eight  hours  wherein  to  ^""^"^ 
accept  Great  Britain's  terms  and  withdraw  from  her 
engagements  with  the  other  northern  powers.  This 
done,  the  Russian  fleet  at  Revel  was  to  be  attacked. 
In  anticipation  of  what  was  coming,  Danish  troops 
seized  the  free  port  of  Hamburg  and  closed  the 
mouth  of  the  Elbe  to  British  ships. 

The  Danish  navy,  at  this  time,  numbered  twenty 
ships  of  the  line,  fit  for  service,  and  fourteen 
frigates.  Sweden  had  eighteen  ships  of  the  line, 
with  fourteen  frigates.  Together  with  the  Russian 
ships  at  Revel,  St.  Petersburg  and  Cronstadt,  there 
were  some  eighty  sail  of  the  line  and  fifty  frigates 
available  for  sea  service  against  England.  But  they 
were  widely  scattered.  On  March  19  the  British 
envoy  rejoined  the  fleet  oflE  Elsinor.  His  demands 
had  been  rejected.  This  amounted  to  a  declaration 
of  war.  On  March  80  the  British  fleet  entered  the 
sound.  Next  night  was  employed  in  soundings. 
Sir  Hyde  Parker,  in  accordance  with  Nelson's  sug- 
gestions, directed  him  to  make  a  front  attack  on  ^|||^ 
Copenhagen  with  twelve  ships  of  the  line  and  allh^lS' 
the  smaller  vessels,  while  he  himself  was  to  menace 
the  crown  batteries  and  four  Danish  ships  on  the 
inner  line.  The  Danish  battle  front,  composed  of 
anchored  ships,  floating  batteries  and  coast  defences, 
was  one  mile  wide.    Of  the  six  hundred  and  twenty- 


82  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  April  1801 

eight  Danish  guns,  three  hundred  and  seventy-five 
could  be  brought  into  action  on  the  engaged  side. 
The  approach  was  covered  by  a  large  shoal  called 
the  Middle  Ground. 

At  half-past  nine  in  the  morning  of  April  2, 
Nelson  weighed  anchor.  Three  of  his  ships  of  the 
line  soon  ran  aground.  Their  place  was  taken  bj 
several  frigates  that  had  to  suffer  dearly  for  their 

copeQ-°  gallantry.  By  noon  the  battle  was  at  its  height. 
Manoeuvring  had  ceased  and  all  depended  on  gun- 
nery and  sheer  endurance.  At  one  o'clock  the 
signal-lieutenant  of  the  "Elephant"  reported  that 
the  admiral  had  thrown  out  No.  39,  the  signal 
to  discontinue  the  fight.  Nelson  was  pacing  his 
quarter-deck  and  took  no  notice  of  the  report. 
The  signal-ofiicer  met  him  at  the  next  turn,  and 
asked  if  he  should  repeat  the  signal.  Nelson  asked 
if  his  own  signal  for  close  action  was  still  hoisted. 

Nelson's     "Ycs,"   Said  the  ofiicer.     "Mind  you  keep  it  sol" 

Insubordi-  . 

natioQ  gaiij^  Nelson.  Nelson  continued  to  tramp  his  quarter- 
deck, the  thunder  of  the  battle  all  about  him,  his 
ship  reeling  to  the  recoil  of  its  own  guns.  The 
stump  of  his  lost  arm  jerked  angrily  to  and  fro,  a 
sure  sign  of  excitement  with  him.  "Leave  off  ac- 
tion!" he  said  to  his  lieutenant;  "I'm  hanged  if  1 
do."  "Vou  know,  Foley,"  he  said,  turning  to  his 
captain,  "I've  only  one  eye;  I've  a  right  to  be 
blind  sometimes."  And  then  putting  the  glass  to 
his  blind  eye,  he  exclaimed,  "I  really  do  not  see 
the  signal!"  He  dismissed  the  incident  by  saying, 
"D —  the  sigrall  Keep  mine  for  closer  action 
flying!" 


1801  April  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  83 

By  two  in  the  afternoon  most  of  the  Danish  guns 
had  been  silenced  and  the  flagship  "Danebrog"  was 
in  flames.  One  hour  later  nearly  all  of  the  floating 
defences  had  been  destroyed  or  had  struck  their 
flags.  The  shore  batteries  were  still  unharmed,  as 
were  the  Danish  ships  hovering  under  their  protec- 
tion at  the  mouth  of  the  harbor.  At  this  point, 
Nelson  sent  in  a  flag  of  truce,  and  thus  gaiaed  a 
valuable  respite  wherein  to  save  his  grounded  ships. 
It  is  still  a  matter  of  dispute  whether  the  use  of  the 
white  flag  in  this  case  was  a  bona  fide  act  of  human- 
ity, or  a  ruse  de  guerre.  Whichever  it  was,  Nelson 
succeeded  in  the  difficult  manoeuvre  of  withdrawing  Nelson 

obtains 

his  injured  ships  during  the  long  interval  that  the'^®'^™^ 
gig  with  the  flag  was  pulling  to  and  fro  between 
the  Danish  batteries  and  Sir  Hyde  Parker's  flagship 
four  miles  in  the  offing.    In  the  end  the  Danish  king 
agreed  to  an  armistice. 

The  result  of  the  battle  was  to  lay  the  front  of 
Copenhagen  open  to  bombardment.  Under  this 
threat  Denmark  was  driven  to  consent  to  a  long 
armistice,  which  gave  the  British  admiral  a  free 
hand  for  his  attack  on  the  Baltic.  The  value  of 
this  service  was  never  adequately  understood  by  Sir 
Hyde  Parker  or  the  British  authorities  at  home. 

On  the  same  day  that  the  British  fleet  forced  the 
passage  of  the  Sound,  the  Prussian  Cabinet  made  a 
formal  demand  on  the  regency  of  Hanover,  to  permit  fg,"|g'* 
the  occupation  of  the  Electorate  by  the  Prussians,  ^*°''^®'" 
and  disband  a  part  of  their  own  forces.  As  this 
proposal  was  supported  by  an  army  of  twenty  thou- 
sand men,   the  Hanoverian  government  was  com- 


84  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  May  1801 

pelled  to  submit;  and  Hanover,  Bremen  and  Hameln 
were  occupied  accordingly.  At  the  same  time,  the 
Danes  took  possession  of  Hamburg  and  Lubeck,  so 
as  to  close  the  mouth  of  the  Elbe  against  English 
commerce;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  a  British  squad- 
ron, under  Admiral  Duckworth,  reduced  all  the 
Swedish  and  Danish  islands  in  the  West  Indies. 
Three  weeks  later,  Nelson's  measures  were  ap- 
Neison       proved  in  this  chilling  note  from  the  British  admir- 

SustaiDed 

alty  office.  "Upon  a  consideration  of  all  the  cir- 
cumstances, his  Majesty  has  thought  fit  to  approve 
the  armistice."  Very  different  is  the  verdict  of  the 
greatest  naval  authorities  on  this  subject.  They  all 
agree  in  declaring  Nelson's  service  on  this  occasion 
as  admirable  in  the  highest  degree.  His  fellow  ad- 
miral. Lord  St.  Vincent,  wrote  at  the  time:  "Your 
lordship's  whole  conduct,  from  your  appointment 
down  to  this  hour,  is  the  subject  of  our  constant 
admiration.  It  does  not  become  me  to  make  com- 
parisons.    All  agree  there  is  but  one  NelsoQ." 

The  news  of  the  Russian  Emperor's  death,  which 

arrived  during  the  naval  armistice  with  Denmark, 

gave  a  wholly  different  cast  to  the  situation.     The 

Czarovitch  was  known  to  incline  toward  England. 

Alexander  Now  that  he  was  ou  the  throne,  one  of  Alexander's 

releases 

British       first   measures   was   to   release   the  British  seamen 

Seamen 

imprisoned  by  his  father.  This  order  was  issued  on 
the  7th  day  of  April.  Four  days  later,  the  northern 
powers  were  surprised  to  find  that  the  British  fleet 
had  entered  the  Baltic  Sea.  To  pass  the  Kdgge 
Shoals,  the  heavy  guns  on  the  three-deckers  had 
to  be  transshipped.     Sir  Hyde  Parker  was  now  re- 


1801  May  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  86 

called   and  Nelson   placed   in  full  command.     He  kelson  in 

^  Command 

had  orders  to  suspend  hostilities  if  Russia  followed 
up  the  release  of  British  sailors  with  the  suspension 
of  her  embargo  on  British  ships.  Still  Nelson  at- 
tempted to  intercept  the  Russian  fleet  at  Revel,  but 
Parker  had  delayed  too  long.  The  Russian  ships 
had  sailed  away  the  day  before.  After  all  it  did 
not  matter,  since  peace  was  now  in  the  air.  On  April 
17,  Russia  and  Prussia  had  agreed  to  cease  warring 

°  °  Peace  with 

on  England.  On  May  17,  the  Czar  ordered  the  re-  Russia 
lease  of  all  embargoed  British  ships.  On  June 
17,  a  convention  at  St.  Petersburg  settled  the  points 
in  dispute.  It  was  conceded  by  Russia  that  a  neu- 
tral flag  should  not  cover  an  enemy's  goods,  whereas 
England  agreed  to  respect  bona  fide  neutral  ship- 
ments. Sweden  and  Denmark  were  not  expressly 
included  in  this  convention,  but  they  of  necessity 
followed  the  example  of  Russia.  The  Danish  gov- 
ernment agreed  to  evacuate  Hamburg,  and  restore 
the  free  navigation  of  the  Elbe,  and  both  Sweden 
and  Denmark  raised  the  embargo.  Great  Britain 
adopted  corresponding  measures;  and  Prussia  took 
an  early  opportunity  to  withdraw  her  troops  from 
Hanover.      Thus  was   dissolved,   in   less   than   six  Northern 

'  Maritime 

months   after   its   formation,    the   most    formidable  ^fg'^gl"®^ 
confederacy  that  had  yet  been  arrayed  against  the 
maritime  power  of  England. 

Napoleon  sent  Duroc  to  St.  Petersburg  to  counter- 
act the  influence  of  Great  Britain,  but  his  ambassador 
accomplished  little  beyond  a  flattering  reception. 
For  France,  during  this  interval,  a  new  annoyance 
had  arisen  in  the  West  Indies.     Early  in  the  year, 


86  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  June  1801 

the  island  of  Sau  Domingo  had  been  thrown  into  fer- 
ment by  the  high-handed  acts  of  a  negro  military 
chieftain  known  as  Toussaint  L'Ouverture.  Pre- 
^nDo-*^^  tending  to  act  in  the  name  of  France,  Toussaint, 
™'"=°  heedless  of  the  protests  of  the  French  civil  commis- 
sioners, annexed  other  portions  of  the  island  that 
had  been  ceded  to  Spain  in  the  treaty  of  Basle  five 
years  before.  In  July,  1801,  the  negro  leader  had 
himself  acclaimed  governor  for  life.  A  new  consti- 
tution was  promulgated  abolishing  slavery  and  all 
distinctions  of  color.  Free  trade  was  adopted.  The 
landed  estates  belonging  to  Frenchmen  not  residing 
on  the  island  were  confiscated.  To  his  French  re- 
monstrants, Toussaint  replied  haughtily:  "I  am  the 
Bonaparte  of  San  Domingo.  The  colony  cannot 
get  along  without  me."  Napoleon  was  constrained 
to  gather  a  naval  force  wherewith  to  recapture  the 
lost  colony.  To  make  so  distant  an  enterprise  a 
safe  venture,  a  disproportionately  formidable  fleet 
had  to  be  assembled,  for  British  cruisers  were  scour- 
ing the  sea.  With  the  bad  tidings  from  San  Do- 
mingo came  the  news  of  a  fierce  sea  fight  of  two 
Sea  Fight   souadrous  of  French  and  English  ships  off  Algesiras 

ofAlgeairas    ^  o  i  & 

in  the  Bay  of  Gibraltar.  The  French  were  trying 
to  reinforce  Cadiz.  With  the  help  of  the  Spanish 
land  batteries,  the  French  rear-admiral,  Linois,  suc- 
ceeded in  capturing  one  of  Admiral  Saumarez's  big 
ships,  the  "Hannibal,"  that  had  grounded  under 
the  Spanish  guns.  Saumarez  withdrew  to  Gibraltar. 
Linois,  having  been  reinforced  with  five  Spanish 
ships  of  the  line  and  another  Frenchman,  came  out 
into  the  bay.     The  British  attacked  after  dark  and 


1801  August  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  87 

the  fight  lasted  through  the  night.  The  French 
man-o'-war,  "Formidable,"  beat  off  three  British 
ships.  In  the  dark  two  of  the  largest  Spanish  ships, 
the  "Real  Carlos"  and  "San  Hermenigeldo,"  taking 
each  other  for  enemies,  set  fire  to  one  another  and 
blew  up.  The  French  "St.  Antoine,"  was  cap- 
tured. 

Throughout   the  summer  all   England  had  been  Threat- 
ened Inva* 

aroused  by  the  menace  of  invasion  because  ofi;**"^^^ 
the  French  gatherings  of  troops  and  ships  at  Tou- 
lon, Dunkirk  and  elsewhere.  Coastguards  were 
picketed  all  along  the  shore,  and  a  British  vol- 
unteer army  called  into  service.  When  Admiral 
Ganthaume  succeeded  in  taking  a  French  squadron 
into  the  Mediterranean,  in  his  attempt  to  succor 
the  French  in  Egypt,  the  alarm  grew.  This  was  not 
abated  when  Ganthaume  returned  to  Toulon  after 
capturing  three  small  English  war  vessels  and  the 
"Swiftsure,"  a  ship  of  the  line,  carrying  seventy- 
four  guns.  Early  in  August  Nelson  made  an  un- 
successful dash  at  the  French  flotilla  off  Boulogne. 
By  the  middle  of  the  month  he  reappeared  with 
eight  ships  of  the  line  and  a  dozen  or  more  frigates. 
The  engagement  that  ensued  was  indecisive.  By 
October  both  countries  were  heartily  tired  of  the 
war.  The  various  modes  of  prosecuting  a  war  of 
offence  were  exhausted.  One  thorn  in  the  side 
of  both  belligerents  had  been  removed  when  Lord  French 

D  evacuate 

Keith    brought    about    the    French   evacuation   of^^^^' 
Egypt  by  undertaking  to  ship  their  army  back  to 
France  on  his  own  vessels.     This  was  accomplished 
early  in  September  to  the  satisfaction  of  both  sides. 


88  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  October  i801 

Preliminary  peace  negotiations  were  entered  into  at 
London  on  the  first  day  of  October.     Previous  to 

Coercion  of  this,  Portugal  purchased  a  treaty  with  her  powerful 
neighbors  by  ceding  to  France  one  half  of  Guiana, 
paying  twenty  millions  of  francs  for  the  support 
of  the  French  troops,  confirming  Olivenza  with  its 
territory  to  Spain,  and  closing  her  ports  against  all 
English  ships,  whether  of  war  or  of  commerce. 

On  October  18,  another  secret  treaty  with  Spain 
was  signed  at  Madrid,  by  the  terms  of  which  Loui- 
siana once  more  changed  hands.  In  England,  the 
implacable  Pitt  and  Nelson  were  among  those  who 
approved  the  conciliatory  policy  of  the  new  Minis- 

Feaceof     try.     Peacc  was  ratified  in  Parliament,  on  October 

London  -^ 

10,  by  a  majority  of  ten  to  one.  It  was  agreed  that 
hostilities  with  France  should  immediately  cease  by 
land  and  sea;  that  Great  Britain  should  restore  its 
colonial  acquisitions  in  every  part  of  the  world; 
Ceylon  in  the  East,  and  Trinidad  in  the  West 
Indies,  alone  excepted;  that  Egypt  should  be  re- 
stored to  the  Porte,  Malta  and  its  dependencies 
to  the  order  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem,  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  to  Holland;  the  integrity  of  Portugal 
was  to  be  guaranteed,  the  harbors  of  the  Roman 
and  Neapolitan  states  evacuated  by  the  French,  and 
Porto  Ferrajo  by  the  English  forces.  The  news  of 
the  definite  signing  of  the  treaty  at  London  made 
French  consols  go  up  from  forty-eight  to  fifty- 
three.  In  the  same  year,  peace  treaties  were  con- 
cluded between  France  and  Turkey,  France  and 
Bavaria,  France  and  America,  France  and  Algiers, 
and  France  and  Russia. 


1802  Jan.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  89 


1802 

IN  ENGLAND  the  threatening  phantom  of  for- 
eign invasion  had  been  laid  at  rest.  The 
British  "Annual  Register"  thus  records  the 
beginning  of  the  year:  "It  was  the  opinion  of  ap||cl*fn°' 
vast  majority  of  the  British  nation  that  the  year^"^*"^ 
1802  commenced  under  circumstances  highly  au- 
spicious. ...  It  was  universally  understood  that 
the  income  tax,  a  burden  which  the  bulk  of  the 
nation  had  rather  impatiently  borne,  was  now  to  be 
withdrawn,  and  that  vast  reductions  were  to  take 
place  in  our  military  and  marine  establishments." 
The  last  part  of  this  promise  was  actually  fulfilled, 
much  to  the  disgust  of  Sheridan,  who  spoke  agamst 
these  measures  in  Parliament.  He  said  that  the 
country  had  failed  in  every  object  for  which  it  had 
plunged  into  war.  Instead  of  checking  the  aggran- 
dizement of  France,  Great  Britain  had  raised  her  to 
such  a  height  as  to  endanger  the  existence  of  all. 
He  saw  the  immense  power  of  France  now  con- 
solidated, all  her  continental  enemies  subdued  or 
won  over  to  her  interests.  For  his  part  his  fears 
and  alarms  began  where  those  of  the  Ministry  had 
ended.  Mr,  Sheridan  was  scarcely  heeded.  Pitt, 
for  the  moment,  silenced  all  opposition  by  support-  The  oppo. 
ing   his   successors   in   office.     Even    Nelson   arose  ^''®°*'^'^ 


9U  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Jan.  i8oa 

in  the  House  of  Lords  to  say  that  the  possession 
of  the  Island  of  Malta  and  of  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  were  of  little  consequence  to  England. 

The  next  thing  to  take  up  the  attention  of  Parlia- 
ment was  the  petition  of  the  British  printers  and 
booksellers  asking  for  a  release  from  the  heavy 
duties  on  paper.  In  their  petition  they  recited  that 
by  the  additional  duties  levied  on  paper  "the  prog- 
ress of  literature  and  the  encouragement  of  genius 
had  been  equally  fettered."  Parliament  agreed  to 
a  reduction  of  the  paper  tax  on  the  ground  that  the 
tax  "struck  directly  at  the  very  existence  of  English 
literature." 

The  true  makers  of  literature  scarcely  stood  in 

need  of  such  encouragement.     Unlike  France,  the 

leaven  of  the  new  age  in  England,  as  in  Germany, 

had  called  forth  a  fresh  harvest  of  brilliant  writers. 

Romantic  fpj^g  English  romantic  movement  in  literature  was 

Movement  D 

tur^'^*^'^^'  in  full  bloom.  To  be  sure,  Burke,  the  great  Parlia- 
mentarian, Cowper,  the  poet,  and  Burns,  the  Scot- 
tish bard,  had  just  died,  but  their  names  were  in 
every  one's  mouth.  The  stirring  events  of  the 
^p;^^^"^8  of  Pj-qq^i^  Eevolution,  together  with  the  sudden  bril- 
Leiters  ji^Qt  ^igg  q[  literature  in  Germany,  where  Goelhe, 
Schiller,  Richter,  Wieland,  Herder,  and  the  great 
philosopher  Kant  were  vying  with  each  other  in 
new  productions,  acted  as  a  spur  to  the  writers  of 
England.  Coleridge  turned  from  his  translations 
of  German  plays  and  ballads  to  write  his  "Rime 
of  the  Ancient  Mariner."  Walter  Scott  sought 
inspiration  for  his  revivals  of  medieval  chivalry 
by  translating  Goethe's  "Goetz  von  Bcrlichingen." 


itt03  Spring  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  91 

Sheridan,  at  the  same  time,  translated  Kotzebue's 
"Pizarro."     The  next  years  brought  Tom  Moore's  Revival  ot 

*'  ^  British 

"Anacreontics,"  Campbell's  "Poems,"  Coleridge ^'^^'''^ 
and  Wordsworth's  lyrics,  Southey's  "Thalaba,"  the 
prose  masterpieces  of  Charles  Lamb  and  Thomas 
DeQuince}'',  with  Paley's  "Philosophical  Essays." 
In  1802  Scott  brought  out  his  "Minstrelsy  of  the 
"Scottish  Border,"  while  the  works  of  Chaucer  were 
revived  by  Godwin,  Shelley's  friend.  The  same 
year  saw  the  establishment  of  the  "Edinburgh 
Review"  and  of  Bees'  great  Cyclopedia. 

Nowhere  else  in  the  world  was  there  such  an  out- 
pour of  literature.  In  Italy  the  death  of  Alfieri, 
the  dramatic  poet,  left  a  void.  In  France  the  only 
writer  of  note  was  Chateaubriand.  Art,  too,  lan- 
guished. In  France  the  painter  David  stood  alone. 
Canova,  the  Italian  rival  of  the  Danish  sculptor 
Thorvaldsen,  had  just  finished  his  famous  group 
of  Theseus.  Napoleon  made  haste  to  summon  him 
to  Paris. 

The  First  Consul,  after  concluding  his  various 
peace  treaties,  continued  to  play  the  game  of  world 
politics  on  a  grand  scale.  Before  the  end  of  January 
Napoleon  caused  the  Cisalpine  Republic  to  call  a  con- 
vention at  Lyons.  The  300  delegates  had  to  cross 
the  Alps  in  midwinter.  Napoleon,  proceeding  there 
with  Josephine  his  wife,  had  himself  proclaimed 
president  of  the  Italian  Republic.  A  constitutioa 
like  that  of  France  was  adopted.  The  acceptance 
of  a  similar  constitution  was  imposed  upon  the 
Batavian  Republic  of  Holland.  On  March  25,  a 
formal  treaty  of   peace  was   concluded  at  Amiens  Am^n» 


92  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  Spring  1802 

between  France,  Holland  and  Spain  on  one  side, 
and  Great  Britain  on  the  other.  France  kept  pos- 
session of  the  Austrian  or  Flemish  Netherlands, 
the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  the  greater  part  of  Italy 
and  Switzerland  and  that  vast  tract  of  territory  on 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  known  as  Louisiana.  England 
kept  none  of  her  new  possessions,  excepting  Ceylon 
wrested  from  Holland,  the  Island  of  Trinidad  taken 
from  Spain,  and  a  new  slice  of  India  won  from  the 
conquered  Hindu  prince,  Tippoo  Sahib.  San  Do- 
mingo for  the  moment  was  restored  to  France  by 
General  Leclerc's  early  victories  over  the  blacks 
under  Toussaint.  The  same  fate  befell  the  negro 
colonies  of  Guadeloupe  and  Martinique. 
coDcordit  ^^  April  8,  the  final  adoption  of  the  religious 
m France  QQ^^ordat  arranged  with  the  new  pope,  Pius  VII., 
was  celebrated  in  the  Church  of  Notre  Dame  de 
Paris  by  a  grand  Te  Deum  in  honor  of  the  re-estab- 
lishment of  public  worship.  Throughout  France 
the  priests  turned  from  foes  into  loyal  supporters 
of  the  new  government.  At  the  same  time  forty- 
four  articles  of  the  Protestant  cult  were  sanctioned 
by  law.  This  caused  bitter  dissatisfaction  among 
the  old  Republicans.  The  country  at  large  hailed 
the  re-establishment  of  religion  with  joy.  At  the 
Return  of  end  of  the  month  came  another  act  of  amnesty  for 
grees  the  Royalist  exiles,  though  Napoleon's  efforts  to 
make  the  Count  de  Lille  renounce  his  rights  to  the 
throne  of  France  had  failed.  All  but  one  thou- 
sand of  the  proscribed  royalists  were  permitted  to 
return.  Their  lands,  seized  by  the  State,  were  to  be 
returned  to  them  if  not  exceeding  a  certain  area,  but 


1803  Spring  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  93 

not  so  their  hereditary  privileges  over  canals,  high- 
ways or  other  public  institutions.  As  a  result  of 
these  measures  a  great  number  of  exiles  returned 
from  England,  and  with  them  came  a  host  of  travel- 
lers eager  to  visit  the  land  that  had  so  long  been 
closed  to  them.  The  British  Embassy  in  Paris  was 
reopened. 
Napoleon's  next  measure  was  to  reorganize  the^'i-ench 

^  '-'  Internal 

French  educational  system.  On  the  first  of  May,  Reforms 
an  act  was  passed  governing  secondary  schools. 
Thirty  of  the  best  ecoles  centrales  were  reorgan- 
ized as  lycees,  where  the  pupils  were  drilled  and 
trained  in  semi-military  fashion.  To  bind  these 
new  schools  as  closely  as  possible  to  the  State, 
6,000  pupils,  called  "wards  of  the  nation"  were 
to  receive  free  education.  Most  of  these  were  the 
children  of  deserving  soldiers.  Technical  and  spe- 
cial schools  were  also  founded.  Education,  which 
up  to  1790  had  been  in  the  hands  of  the  clergy, 
became  a  prerogative  of  the  State.  On  May  8,  a 
decree  of  the  Senate  extended  Napoleon's  Consu- 
late ten  years  beyond  the  original  term  of  ten  years 
in  recognition  of  his  services  to  France.  Napoleon 
accepted  the  honor  in  these  words:  "Fortune  has 
smiled  upon  the  Republic.  But  Fortune  is  incon- 
stant. How  many  men  whom  she  has  showered 
with  her  favors  have  lived  more  than  a  few  years? 
The  interests  of  my  happiness  and  of  my  good  fame 
demand  a  termination  of  my  public  life  so  soon  as 
general  peace  is  assured  to  the  world.  But  you  say 
that  I  owe  my  country  another  sacrifice.  I  will 
make  it." 


94  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Spring  1802 

Order  of         ^  few   davs   afterward   the  Order  of   the  Loyal 

the  Loyal  ''  J 

^'^'°"  Legion  was  established,  not  without  determined 
opposition  in  the  Chamber.  The  two  Tribunes 
Savoie-Eollin  and  Chauvalin  denounced  the  meas- 
ure as  a  monarchical  institution.  On  the  next  day 
the  Chamber  passed  a  law  re-establishing  slavery  in 
the  West  Indian  colonies  j-estored  to  France  by  the 
Treaty  of  Amiens.  This  goaded  the  blacks  of  San 
Domingo  to  further  desperate  resistance. 

The  Revo-      General   Leclerc    and    Admiral    Villaret-Joyeuse 

lution  of 

Hayti  \>^2A  landed  their  expedition  at  Samana.  Leclerc 
first  tried  to  win  over  Toussaint  by  a  friendly  let- 
ter from  the  First  Consul,  and  offers  of  bribes  sent 
him  through  his  own  sons,  who  had  been  brought 
from  school  in  France.  The  attempted  restoration 
of  slavery  made  the  blacks  reject  all  proposals. 
On  the  night  after  the  French  troops  landed,  the 
negroes  burned  the  French  settlement  at  Cape 
Frangois,  now  Cape  Haytien.  Of  800  houses  but 
60  escaped.  The  blacks  carried  their  war  into  the 
mountains.  Revolting  cruelties  were  practiced  on 
both  sides.  Yellow  fever  came  to  the  aid  of  the 
blacks.  Then  General  Leclerc  again  tried  diplo- 
macy. The  two  black  leaders,  Dessalines  and 
Christophe,  were  won  by  false  representations. 
Next  he  induced  Toussaint  to  come  to  a  con- 
ference at  Gonaive.  Toussaint  was  seized  and  de- 
ported to  France.  There  he  died  of  neglect  in  the 
dungeons  of  Chateau  Joux.  General  Leclerc,  with 
the  bulk  of  his  army,  remained  to  fall  a  prey  to 
the  ravages  of  yellow  fever. 

On  June  25,   the  final  treaty  of  peace   between 


1802  Summer  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  95 

France  and  Turkey  was  concluded.  It  assured  free 
navigation  in  the  Black  Sea  to  French  ships,  and  pel^e^^vith 
in  some  other  respects  was  found  to  be  inimical 
to  England.  Similar  conventions  were  established 
with  the  Deys  of  Algiers,  Tunis  and  Tripoli.  On 
August  3,  the  French  Senate  revised  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  year  VIII.,  so  as  to  extend  the  term  of 
office  of  the  consuls  for  life.     To  the  First  Consul  Bonaparte 

Consul  for 

was  given  the  former  royal  prerogative  of  executive  ^^® 
clemency.  The  troublesome  Tribunes  were  reduced 
from  one  hundred  to  fifty.  Lafayette,  who  opposed 
the  suspension  of  political  liberties  and  of  a  free 
press,  was  retired  from  public  life.  Napoleon  ac- 
cepted his  new  honors  in  these  words:  "Senators! 
the  life  of  a  citizen  belongs  to  his  country.  The 
French  people  wish  mine  to  be  entirely  consecrated 
to  them.  I  obey  their  will."  It  was  in  those  days 
of  general  reforms  that  an  ample  supply  of  fresh 
running  water  was  secured  to  Paris  by  aqueducts 
from  the  Eiver  Ourcq. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  year  most  internal  ques- 
tions were  settled  for  France,  and  Napoleon  once 
more  felt  the  need  of  reaching  out.  In  September 
a  decree  of  the  French  Senate  "reunited"  the  Island 
of  Elba  with  France.  Next,  the  Italian  province  of 
Piedmont  was  annexed  to  France.  On  October  9, 
French  troops  occupied  the  Duchy  of  Parma  upon  New 

^  ^  -^  ^        French  An- 

the  sudden  death  of  the  Duke,  Don  Ferdinand  de°«**"°^^ 
Bourbon.     On  October  21,  General  Ney,  at  the  head 
of  12,000  French  soldiers,   entered   Switzerland  to 
suppress  the  disorders  that  had  been  brought  about 
by  JSapoleon's  agent.     Already  the  canton  of  Wal- 


96  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Summer  1808 

lis  had  been  detached,  ostensibly  to  form  an  inde- 
pendent republic,  but  really  to  secure  to  France  the 
control  of  the  Simplon  Pass  into  Northern  Italy. 
The  British  ambassador  in  Paris  alone  protested 
against  these  breaches  of  the  peace.  Napoleon  si- 
lenced him  with  the  proud  declaration,  *'It  is  recog- 
nized in  Europe  that  Italy,  Holland,  and  Switzerland 
are  at  the  disposal  of  France. ' ' 

No  part  of  Napoleon's  diplomacy  was  more  ably 

conceived  or  better  carried  out  than  the  negotiations 

with  the  German  princes  intrusted  to  Talleyrand. 

Diet  of      All  through   the  years  1801   and   1802  a  Diet  at 

Regens- 

EatfsboD  B,6gensburg  deliberated  over  the  changes  imposed 
upon  the  German  empire  by  the  treaty  of  Lune- 
ville.  The  proverbial  antagonism  between  the  vari- 
ous German  States  and  princes  played  its  usual 
part.  In  the  summer  of  1801  Prime  Minister  Mont- 
gelas  of  Bavaria  had  signed  the  first  of  those  treat- 
ies which  made  Napoleon  the  arbiter  of  Germany. 
Two  months  later  a  secret  treaty  between  Alexan- 
der and  Bonaparte  admitted  Russia  to  a  share  in 
the  reorganization  of  Germany.  Equilibrium  was 
to  be  maintained  between  Austria  and  Prussia.  Be- 
yond that  the  Czar  stipulated  for  the  advancement 
of  his  own  relatives  on  the  thrones  of  Wurtemberg, 
Bavaria,  and  Baden.  One  after  another  the  German 
princes  settled  with  their  patrons  for  a  share  in  the 
spoil.  On  June  3,  a  secret  agreement  between  France 
and  Russia  embodied  all  of  these  arrangements,  and 

oloCTmany  *'^^  Spoliation  of  the  ancient  German  empire  was  a 
settled  fact.  The  Diet  of  Regensburg  in  its  final 
conclusions,  known  as  the  Reichsdeputationshaupt- 


1802  Autumn  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  97 

schluss,  solemnly  ratified  the  provisions  by  which 
forty-two  out  of  forty-eight  free  cities,  and  all  the 
ecclesiastical  states  lost  their  independence.  Only 
six  free  cities  remained — Hamburg,  Bremen,  La- 
beck,  Frankfort,  Augsburg,  and  Nuremberg.  All 
the  landed  property  of  the  Church  was  confiscated. 
The  free  Universities,  too,  lost  heavily.  Most  of 
the  former  feudal  States  were  wiped  oflE  the  map. 
For  Germany  as  a  nation  the  destruction  of  these 
innumerable  petty  principalities  was  a  distinct  gain. 
A  constant  source  of  discord  was  done  away.  The^e^^V'^ 
national  feeling  of  the  German  people  grew  in  unity  FeeiW 
and  strength. 

During  the  same  year,  in  October,  1802,  the  deci- 
sive battle  of  Poona  in  India  changed  the  fate  of  the 
Mahratta  empire.  The  united  armies  of  Sindia  and  Mahratta 
the  Peishwa  were  defeated  by  Jaswant  Rao  Holkar, 
an  illegitimate  pretender  to  tbe  Mahratta  throne. 
Peish  Baji  Rao  fled  for  his  life  to  the  western 
coast,  and  escaped  on  board  an  English  ship  to 
the  port  of  Bassein,  about  twenty  miles  to  the 
northward  of  Bombay. 

Baji  Rao  was  paralyzed  by  the  disaster.  Another 
Peishwa  was  set  up  by  Jaswant  Rao  Holkar  at 
Poona,  and  Baji  Rao  saw  nothing  before  him  but 
ruin.  In  this  extremity  he  agreed  to  sign  the  ob- 
noxious treaty,  provided  the  English  restored  him 
to  his  throne  at  Poona.  Accordingly  the  treaty  of  Treaty  of 
Bassein  was  concluded  on  the  last  day  of  iiecem-  ^^*^ 
ber,  1S02. 


XTXth  Century— Vol.  1—6 


98  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Jan.  180J 


1803 

THE  DESIRE  for  peace  led  Addington's  gov- 
ernment in  England  to  remain  inactive  until 
the   French    aggressions    in   Holland,    Italy 
and  Switzerland  became  accomplished  facts.     Even 

Napoleon 

renews      then  Naoolcon  was  the  first  to  renew  the  quarrel. 

quarrel  ^  * 

wah  Eng-  jj^  January,  Talleyrand,  urged  by  his  master,  com- 
plained to  the  British  ambassador  of  the  hostile 
articles  in  the  English  newspapers.  Lord  W hit- 
worth  made  a  countercharge  against  Napoleon's 
official  organ,  "Le  Moniteur."  Then  Talleyrand 
called  for  an  explanation  of  Great  Britain's  delay 
about  evacuating  Malta.  On  January  13,  the  "  Mon- 
iteur''  published  Sebastiani's  report  on  the  mission 
that  the  First  Consul  had  intrusted  to  him  in  the 
East.  The  report,  which  filled  eight  columns  of  the 
"Moniteur,"  contained  a  very  complete  account  of 
the  resources  and  possible  allies  available  for  a  new 

French  '^ 

Ely^t"^  °°  conquest  of  Egypt.  The  exact  number  and  disposi- 
tion of  the  British  in  th^  East  were  given  with  those 
of  the  Turkish  forces,  estimated  altogether  at  19,000 
men.  They  were  declared  to  be,  "not  an  army,  but 
a  collection  of  men,  badly  armed,  undisciplined,  and 
worn  out  by  debauchery."  In  conclusion,  it  was 
stated  that  "six  thousand  French  would  suffice  to 
reconquer  Egypt." 


I803Feb.-March  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  99 

This  threatening  manifesto  resounded  in  England 
like  a  war  cry.  The  British  ambassador  in  Paris 
henceforth  became  intractable  on  the  subject  of 
Malta.  On  February  13,  Lord  Whitworth  at- 
tended a  state  function  at  the  Tuileries.-  He  was 
violently  accosted  by  the  First  Consul.     When  hefi't.To?'' 

War 

tried  to  reply,  Napoleon  exclaimed:  "1  suppose 
you  are  going  to  speak  of  Piedmont  and  Switzer- 
land. They  are  mere  trifles.  You  ought  to  have 
thought  of  this  during  the  peace  negotiation.  You 
have  no  right  now  to  complain."  Lord  Whitworth 
transmitted  the  conversation  verbatim  to  his  govern- 
ment. Two  days  later  the  "Moniteur"  published 
the  government's  annual  report  on  the  situation  of 
the  Republic  to  the  legislative  body.  Referring  to 
England,  Napoleon's  mouthpiece  said:  "Be  the 
success  of  intrigue  what  it  may  in  London,  it  will 
not  drag  other  nations  into  its  net.  The  nation 
asserts  with  just  pride  that  England,  single-handed, 
is  unable  to  cope  with  France." 

It  was  a  cry  to  arms.  On  March  8,  King  George,  f^lfjand 
in  a  message  to  the  House  of  Commons,  informed  ■^'^'"'^ 
Parliament  that  he  had  thought  it  expedient  to 
adopt  additional  measures  for  the  security  of  his 
dominions.  Discussions  of  great  importance  be- 
tween l^is  Majesty  and  the  French  government,  it 
was  set  forth,  induced  him  to  rely  on  the  assistance 
of  Parliament  to  adopt  such  measures  as  the  honor 
and  interest  of  the  English  people  required.  On 
March  10,  followed  a  royal  proclamation  calling  the 
militia  into  service.  Two  days  afterward,  the  First 
Consul   summoned   Lord   Whitworth   to   the   Tuil- 


100  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  March  1803 

eries,  and  loudly  assailed  him:  "So  you  are  bent 
on  war."  Turning  to  the  other  ambassadors  he 
shouted:  "The  English  are  bent  on  war,  but  if  they 
are  the  first  to  draw  the  sword,  I  shall  be  the  last  to 
sheathe  it.  Since  Britons  do  not  respect  treaties, 
we  shall  cover  them  with  black  crape."  Next  day 
FVench  Napolcou  despatched  confidential  couriers  to  Alex- 
aratioas  ^uder  of  Eussia  and  to  the  King  of  Prussia  to 
induce  them  to  make  common  cause  with  him. 
Negotiations  were  opened  to  sell  French  Louisiana 
to  the  United  States  of  North  America  for  eighty 
million  francs. 

On  March  25,  a  law  was  passed  in  France  which 
placed  120,000  new  conscripts  under  the  colors. 
During  the  French  parleys  with  England  it  had 
been  explained  that  the  naval  armaments  at  Toulon 
and  Brest  were  made  to  take  possession  of  Louisi- 
ana. Previous  to  this  Bonaparte,  in  a  confidential 
communication  to  England,  had  laid  stress  on  the 
The  United  ^"^P^^*^^*^^  of  Louisiana  for  keeping  the  United 
Th^^at-     States    in    check.      President   Jefferson,    receiving 

ened  ...  c      i  •  i  • 

intimations  of  this,  protested  against  such  a  pro- 
ceeding. In  America,  the  presence  of  General  Le- 
clerc  in  the  West  Indies  with  so  large  a  force  was 
regarded  as  a  menace.  Napoleon's  sudden  need  of 
money  in  1803  changed  all  that. 

Four  nations — France,  Spain,  Great  Britain  and 
the  United  States  were  concerned  in  determining 
the  boundaries  of  this  territory.  It  was  finally 
agreed  that  American  Louisiana  should  extend  from 
the  Mississippi  along  the  thirty-first  parallel  to  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  thence  along  the  Red  Hiver  up  to 


1803  April  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  101 

the  Arkansas,  and  thence  north  with  the  mountain 
chain  to  the  forty-second  parallel  of  latitude.  The 
region  practically  included  the  present  States  of 
Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Missouri,  Iowa,  Minnesota, 
Kansas,  Nebraska,  Colorado,  the  Dakotas,  Montana, 
Wyoming  and  Indian  Territory.  The  official  dis- 
cussions over  the  various  lines  lasted  for  years. 
In  the  meanwhile,  Napoleon  yielded  all  the  French 

^  -^  TheLouisW 

territory  in  dispute,  aggregating  more  than  a  mil-  ^{J^g^'"" 
lion  square  miles,  with  85,000  mixed  inhabitants, 
for  the  sum  of  $11,250,000,  to  be  paid  in  six  per 
cent  bonds,  payable  fifteen  years  after  date.  For 
the  United  States,  Messrs.  Monroe  and  Livingston 
concluded  the  terms  of  the  purchase  on  April  30, 
1803.  In  the  autumn  the  United  States  took  peace- 
able possession. 

The  purchase  of  Louisiana  was  the  greatest  event 
in  Jefferson's  administration.  The  power  of  the 
Mississippi  was  no  longer  a  matter  of  dispute. 
Very  aptly  did  Mr.  Livingston  say  to  the  French 
ministers  as  they  arose  from  signing  the  treaty: 
"We  have  lived  long,  gentlemen,  but  this  is  the 
noblest  work  of  our  lives."  Napoleon  said:  "This 
will  forever  strengthen  the  power  of  the*  United 
Sates."  Among  the  American  people  this  was  not 
so   clearly   recognized.      Jefferson's  administration  American 

Expansion 

was  severely  assailed  by  critics  who  declared  that  Denounced 
the  new   territory   was  a   barren  wilderness  which 
would  never  be  worth  the  price.     Previous  to  this, 
during  Jefferson's  first  term,  the  new  State  of  Ohio 
had  been  taken  into  the  Union. 
Two  other  notable  American  achievements  under- 


102 


A    HISTORY    OF    THE 


Summer  1803 


taken    in    that  year   were  Chief -Justice  Marshall's 
reorganization  of  the  American  law,  and   the  war 
against   the   Barbary  pirates.      For  some  time  the 
Moorish  pashas  along  the  Northern  coast  of  Africa 
had   exacted   tribute   from   all   American  shipping 
that  came  within  their  reach.     The  American  gov- 
ernment consented    to    pay   a   subsidy   to   exempt 
with  Bar-    American  ships  from  these  exactions,     in  1801  Cap- 
Pirates      ^j^j^  Bainbridgc,  commanding  the  "George    Wash- 
ington," took  the  money  to  the  Dey  of  Algiers,  and 
was  ordered  by  him  to  convey  the  Dey's  own  tribute 
to  the  Turkish  Sultan  to  Constantinople.     At  the 
request  of  the  American  Consul,  Bainbridge  con- 
sented, but  expressed  a  hope  that  the  "next  tribute 
might  be  delivered  from  the  mouths  of  his  guns." 
In  the  same  year  the  Sultan  of  Tripoli  clamored  for 
more  tribute.     He  tried  to  enforce  his  demand  by 
acts  of  war.     An  American  squadron  was  sent  to 
the  Mediterranean  under  Captain  Dale.     The  Bey 
of  Algiers   came  to  terms.      Not  so  the  Pasha  of 
Engage-     Tripoli.     The  first  engagement  of  note  was  fought 
Corsairs     j^^  ^hc  fall  of  1801,  off  Malta,  between  Lieutenant 
Sterrett,  commanding  the  twelve-gun  schooner  "En- 
terprise,"   and    the   war   polacre    "Tripoli."      The 
corsair   struck   her   colors   after  a   two-hour   fight. 
She  discharged  another  broadside  when  the  Ameri- 
can vessel  came  into  close  range.    "Sink  the  damned 
treacherous  Moor,"  shouted  Sterrett.     His  gunners 
raked  the  enemy  fore  and  aft,  shot  away  her  mizzen- 
mast  and  killed  fifty  of  her  Arab  crew.     At  last  the 
pirate  captain  threw  his  flag  into  the  sea  and  begged 
for  mercy.      All    his   guns    and   small   arms   were 


1803  Summer  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  103 

thrown  overboard.  The  "Tripoli"  was  sent  home 
under  a  jury  mast  and  jibsail  with  the  compliments 
of  the  American  navy.  The  "Enterprise"  had  not 
lost  a  man. 

In  July,  1802,  the  "Constellation,"  under  Cap- ^l^f/lh*" 
tain  Murray,  fought  nine  gunboats  oflE  Tripoli  and 
drove  five  of  them  ashore.  Next  summer  a  Tri- 
politan  cruiser  of  twenty-two  guns  was  driven  into 
a  bay  seven  leagues  east  of  Tripoli.  The  "John 
Adams,"  under  Captain  Rutgers,  and  the  "Enter- 
prise," under  Lieutenant  Isaac  Hull,  stood  in  and 
gave  battle  at  close  range.  In  three-quarters  of  an 
hour  the  enemy's  flag  came  down.  The  Americans 
tried  to  take  possession,  but  the  Tripolitan  met 
them  with  another  broadside  and  then  blew  up  with 
all  aboard.  Iq  1808  the  American  squadron  in  the 
Mediterranean  under  Commodore  Preble  numbered 
nine  ships.  The  "Philadelphia,"  under  Bainbridge, 
captured  a  Moorish  corsair.  Commodore  Preble 
entered  the  harbor  of  Morocco  and  brought  the 
Sultan  to  terms.  The  "Philadelphia"  soon  after 
chased  the  pirate  into  the  Bay  of  Tangiers  and  ran 
upon  a  reef.     She  was  surrounded  by  gunboats  and 

^  T  -*^°  Amerb 

Captain  Bainbridge  had  to  surrender.  Among  the  '^^"(P"^ 
prisoners  were  Lieutenant  Porter,  James  Porter, 
Jack  Jones  and  James  Eenshaw,  of  future  fame. 
Three  hundred  American  seamen  were  sold  into 
slavery.  The  "Philadelphia"  was  floated  and  re- 
fitted, with  her  thirty-six  guns,  as  a  corsair.  While 
in  prison  Captain  Bainbridge  managed  to  send  home 
a  secret  letter  written  in  lime  juice,  in  which  he  sug- 
gested that  the  ship  might  be  retaken.     Lieutenant 


104  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  May  1803 

Decatur's  Decatup  acted  upon   the  su2;o;estion  a  few  months 

Moorish  1  oo 

Exploit  lo^^Qj.^  In  the  Moorish  ketch  "Mesticah,"  captured 
by  himself,  this  gallant  officer  slipped  into  the  har- 
bor of  the  enemy  one  night.  Pretending  to  be  a 
Maltese  merchantman  that  had  lost  his  anchors  he 
made  fast  to  the  former  "Philadelphia."  The  in- 
stant the  two  ships  came  abeam,  Lieutenant  Decatur 
gave  the  order:  "Boarders  away!"  His  disguised 
seamen  swarmed  over  the  side  of  the  brig.  The 
pirates  were  cutlassed  and  driven  overboard.  De- 
catur, with  the  help  of  his  midshipmen,  Morris, 
Lawrence,  McDonough  and  Laws,  fired  the  former 
Yankee  brig.  By  the  light  of  the  burning  ship  the 
Americans  sailed  for  the  mouth  of  the  harbor. 
Within  half  an  hour  the  "Philadelphia"  blew  up. 
The  ketch  got  away  safely  without  the  loss  of  one 
man  and  was  joined  by  the  American  ship  "Siren" 
waiting  outside.  Decatur  was  made  a  captain  by 
Congress  and  his  crew  were  rewarded.  The  ketch 
was   renamed   "Intrepid,"  in  honor  of   the  event. 

Nelson's     Lord   Nclsou  characterized   it   as   "the   most   bold 

opinion  of 

gecai^r'3   and  daring  act  of  the  age."     The  Dey  of  Tripoli 
vented  his  rage  by  casting  Bainbridge  and  his  offi- 
cers   into   deeper  dungeons.      The   war   continued 
unabated. 
\  This  little  pirate  war,  while  full  of  stirring  ex- 

ploits, was  of  slight  importance  compared  to  the 
impending  world-war  between  France  and  England. 
On  May  13,  the  British  ambassador  had  been 
ordered  to  withdraw  from  Paris.  On  May  22,  the 
French  Senate  declared  all  British  travellers  in 
France  prisoners  of  war.     French  troops  under  Gen« 


1803 July  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  106 

eral  Mortier  immediately  invaded  Hanover.     As  the  French 

'^  invade 

hereditary  elector  of  this  principality,  King  George  S'^'^^^®' 
of  England  had  attempted  to  save  his  domain  by 
declaring  neutrality  for  Hanover.  All  England 
took  to  arms.  Wordsworth's  vigorous  sonnets  in 
behalf  of  Switzerland  and  Holland  were  followed 
by  this  clarion  cry: 

No  parleying  now.     In  Britain  is  one  breath. 
We  are  all  with  you  now,  from  shore  to  shore. 
Te  men  of  Kent,  'tis  victory  or  death! 

In  June  a  royal  message  informed  Parliament  that 
Holland  had  been  drawn  into  the  campaign  and 
more  armaments  were  called  for.  The  whole  num- 
ber now  raised  in  Great  Britain  was  103,000  men. 
Further  war  measures  were  passed  early  in  July. 
On  July  20,  Napoleon  issued  a  decree  in  Antwerp 
excluding  all  vessels  that  had  even  touched  at  a 
British  port.     It  was  the  beginning  of  his  famous 

^  &  to  Continen- 

continental  embargo  against  English  shipping,  ade^begua 
Admiral  Brui  was  placed  in  command  of  a  small 
French  naval  force  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  in- 
vading England.  Great  Britain  retaliated  by  de- 
claring a  blockade  on  the  waters  of  the  Elbe  and 
Weser,  Genoa  and  Spezzia,  and  Havre-de-Grace. 
More  than  a  hundred  prize  vessels  were  captured 
by  the  English  before  the  middle  of  June,  Things 
were  at  this  pass  when  Emperor  Alexander  of 
Russia,  on  August  19,  offered  to  mediate  between 
England  and  France.  Great  Britain  refused  to  ac- 
cept mediation  unless  the  French  first  evacuated 
Hanover.      About  this  time  another    insurrection 


106  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Autumn  1803 

Rebellion    broke  out  in  Ireland  under  the  leadership  of  Nap- 

ID  Ireland  i-  " 

per  Tandy,  Redmond  and  Emmet,  who  had  come 
from  France.  Lord  Kilwarden,  Chief-Jastice  of 
the  King's  Bench,  was  murdered  ,  in  the  streets 
of  Dublin.  It  took  several  months  to  quell  the 
rebellion.  The  chief  rebels  were  brought  to  trial 
and  condemned  to  death.  England  in  turn  tried  to 
stir  up  trouble  among  the  Royalists  in  France.  In 
November,  Portugal,  England's  former  ally,  after 
a  secret  treaty  with  Spain  and  France,  declared 
neutrality. 

The  British  Admiralty  despatched  a  fleet  to  the 
West  Indies  to  take  a  hand  in  the  struggle  going 
on  in  San  Domingo.  Here  the  news  of  Toussaint's 
captivity  and  death  had  been  followed  by  renewed 
disaffection  on  the  part  of  his  fellow  leaders,  Des- 
The  Hor-  saliucs  and  Christophe.  They  were  joined  by  Sans 
Hayti  Souci,  another  negro  chief,  and  Bellair  with  his 
Amazonian  wife.  These  two  were  captured  and  tor- 
tured to  death  by  the  French.  Henceforth  the  war 
degenerated  into  unspeakable  horrors.  The  bulk 
of  the  French  army  was  down  with  yellow  fever. 
The  survivors  were  driven  back  into  the  chief 
towns.  Both  sides  sank  into  savagery.  Blood- 
hounds were  imported  irom  Martinique  wherewith 
to  hunt  down  the  luckless  negroes,  and  whole  ship- 
loads of  captives  were  killed.  In  the  fall  of  1802 
General  Leclerc  died  of  fever.  His  successor,  Gen- 
eral Rochambeau,  ventured  an  open  battle  with  the 
blacks  and  was  driven  back  to  Cape  Haytien.  In 
exasperation  the  French  massacred  their  prisoners. 
The  blacks  m  turn  gibbeted  all  the  French  officers 


»903  Autumn  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  107 

they  had  taken.  Neither  side  asked  nor  gave  mercy. 
Jerome  Bonaparte  was  glad  to  return  to  France.  fie^tVakea 
At  this  point  the  British  squadron  hove  in  sight 
and  blockaded  the  French  at  Cape  Haytien.  The 
situation  became  intolerable.  General  Rochambeau 
thus  commented  on  it  in  later  life:  "Pressed  almost 
to  death  by  absolute  famine,  wretchedly  feeding  on 
our  horses,  mules,  asses,  and  even  the  bloodhounds, 
we  had  no  way  to  escape  the  poniards  of  the  en- 
raged negroes  but  by  trusting  our  fate  to  the  sea." 
During  the  last  days  of  November  the  French, 
after  a  final  assault  by  Dessalines,  capitulated  first 
to  the  negroes,  and  then,  fearing  a  general  massacre, 
to  Commodore  Loring  of  the  British  squadron.  Five 
French  vessels  that  tried  to  escape  without  surren- 

'  French 

dering  were  caught.  General  Noailles  alone  got  capitulate 
away.  The  force  taken  by  the  British  numbered 
8,000  troops,  three  frigates  and  seventeen  merchant- 
men. That  was  all  that  was  left  of  the  total  French 
expedition  of  36,000  men  that  had  been  sent  to  the 
West  Indies.  Altogether  80,000  human  beings  had 
lost  their  lives  within  the  space  of  two  years. 

French  San  Domingo  declared  its  independence 
and  became  the  Republic  of  Hayti.  The  other  colo- 
nies of  France  and  Holland  also  suffered  severely 
by  the  war.  A  squadron  under  Sir  Samuel  Hood 
successively  captured  St.  Lucia,  St.  Pierre,  Tobago, 
Berbice,  Demerara,  and  Issequibo.  During  this 
time  French  agents  succeeded  in  stirring  up  trouble 
in  England's  colonies  in  the  Far  East.  While  the 
British  were  straining  every  nerve  to  resist  Napo- 
leon's projected  invasion  of  England,  they  were  dis- 


108  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Autumn  1803 

Lidia''^  ^^  tracted  by  incessant  insurrections  and  border  wars 
in  India.  The  great  Sultanate  of  Mahratta  had 
split  up  into  a  federation  of  warlike  chiefs,  who 
were  forever  overrunning  their  borders.  In  their 
armies  they  employed  many  French  ofi&cers.  After 
the  subjugation  of  Tippoo  Sahib  a  series  of  treaties 
were  concluded  by  various  Hindu  princes,  Lord 
Cornwallis  and  the  Marquis  of  Wellesley.  In  1802 
the  Mahrattas,  after  defeating  the  Peishwa  of 
Poona,  became  threatening,  and  Lord  Clive  pre- 
pared for  emergencies  at  Hyderabad  by  gathering 
an  army  of  19,000  men  and  five  hundred  guns.  In 
1803,  General  Wellesley  was  directed  to  restore  the 
deposed  Peishwa.  By  a  march  of  sixty-two  miles  in 
thirty-two  hours  he  reached  the  city  of  Poona. 
An  attempt  was  made  by  some  of  the  Mahratta 
chiefs  to  turn  their  territory  over  to  France.  Ad- 
miral Linois,  who  arrived  at  this  juncture  with  a 
French  squadron,  failed  in  his  demonstration.  The 
troops  he  landed  at  Pondicherry  were  taken  prison- 
ers. The  arrival  of  reinforcements  and  the  oppor- 
tune death  of  the  Nizam  of  Hyderabad  strengthened 
England's  position  in  Northern  India.  In  the 
autumn   of   1803,  General    Wellesley   defeated    the 

Defeat  of    Mahrattas  and  stormed  Ahmednuggur.      The  Mar- 
tha Mah-  ^^ 

ratias  ^^jg  ^^f  Wcllesley's  brother,  the  future  Wellington, 
earned  his  spurs  in  this  campaign.  The  fort  of 
Djalnapoor  was  taken  in  September.  On  Septem- 
ber 23,  another  bloody  battle  was  fought  at  Assaye, 

SIdUiI^^"  in  which  Colonel  Arthur  Wellesley  had  the  supreme 
command.  Though  outnumbered  by  ten  to  one,  and 
quite  overmatched  by  the  Mahratta  artillery,  he  won 


J803 Autumn  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  109 

the  day  by  a  series  of  wild  charges.  One-third  of 
the  British  were  slain.  Finally,  after  15,000  of  the 
enemy  had  been  killed,  the  Mahrattas  were  put  to 
rout.  For  his  share  in  this  victory  Colonel  Wel- 
lesley  received  a  sword  of  honor  from  Parliament. 
Meanwhile  hostilities  had  broken  out  in  the  prov- 
ince of  Bombay.  The  town  of  Baroach  was  stormed 
by  the  British  under  Colonel  Woodington,  and  his 
victory  was  followed  by  the  conquest  of  Chimapeer. 
In  the  east,  the  British  troops  stationed  in  Bengal 
and  Madras  stormed  the  fortress  of  Barbutty.  Per- 
ron, a  Frenchman  placed  in  command  of  15,000  „ 
Sindias,  suffered  a  defeat  in  front  of  Allyghur.  '''^*^<'^*«<* 
On  September  4,  the  fort  itself  was  stormed  and 
Perron  was  taken  prisoner.  General  Lake  pushed 
on  and  attacked  a  large  Hindu  army  under  the 
French  general,  Bourgnieu,  in  front  of  Delhi.  The  surrender 
Hindus  lost  8,000  men  and  68  guns.  The  French 
officers  surrendered,  and  Peishwa  Allum  of  Delhi 
accepted  British  suzerainty.  General  Dudernaigne 
surrendered  Mathura  in  October.  By  the  end  of 
that  month  the  Mahrattas  made  a  determined  at- 
tempt to  recapture  Delhi.  On  October  27,  General 
Lake's  cavalry  was  defeated  at  Lashwaree.  Colonel 
Vandeleur,  the  leader,  was  killed.  The  British 
infantry,  coming  up,  renewed  the  attack  with  great 
loss.  Major-General  Ware  was  killed,  and  General 
Lake  and  his  son  were  wounded.  Two  thousand 
Hindus  and  a  large  number  of  elephants  were  cap- 
tured. On  October  29,  General  Wellesley  defeated 
the  Mahrattas  at  Arghaum  and  captured  thirty- 
eight  guns  with  all  their  elephants.     The  stronghold 


110  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Autumn  1808 

of  Dammergaun  was  taken  early  in  December  with 
great  slaughter.  After  these  events  the  Rajahs  o! 
Berar,  Sindia  and  Bhonsla  came  to  terms.  They  en- 
British  Ac-S^S^d  ncver  to  enter  into  another  treaty  with  French* 
?n 'fS^  nien  and  yielded  all  their  territory  in  Northern  Hin* 
dustan  between  the  Jumna  and  the  Ganges.  All 
the  forts  in  the  Deccan  were  given  up.  The  war 
in  India  had  lasted  altogether  five  months.  During 
its  course  the  natives  of  the  Island  of  Ceylon  were 
likewise  subjugated  and  brought  under  British  rule. 
While  Great  Britain  thus  had  her  hands  full, 
King  George  III.  succumbed  to  a  temporary  attack 
of  insanity  and  had  to  be  put  in  a  strait- jacket.  In 
Paris  the  "Moniteur"  published  this  comment: 
"Why  are  we  at  war?  Because  the  English  people 
have  no  one  to  conduct  their  affairs  but  a  mad  king 
and  a  prime  minister  who  is  like  an  old  nurse." 
Napoleon,  himself,  was  inspecting  the  camp  of  in- 
t^tn^l  vasion  at  Boulogne.  Frenchmen  were  reminded  of 
England  ^.j^g  gloHous  dccds  of  Joau  of  Arc,  and  new  songs 
were  composed  on  the  descent  into  England.  The 
poets  were  publicly  rewarded  by  Napoleon.  Not 
so  Madame  de  Stael,  who  about  this  time  ventured 
to  return  to  France  from  her  recent  exile.  "Inform 
her,"  wrote  Bonaparte  to  Regnier,  "that  if  at  the 
end  of  five  days  she  is  still  in  France,  she  will  be 
conducted  to  the  frontier  by  the  gendarmerie.  The 
arrival  of  this  woman,  like  that  of  a  bird  of  ill 
omen,  has  always  been  a  signal  of  some  trouble.  It 
is  my  intention  that  she  shall  not  remain  in  France." 
Together  with  the  poet  Chateaubriand,  who  had 
been  sent  to  Switzerland  by  Napoleon,  Madame  de 


1803  Winter  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  111 

Stael  had  helped  to  start  the  French  romantic  move-  ^^^^ 
ment  in  literature.  The  literary  career  of  this 
gifted  daughter  of  Necker  began  with  her  "Lettres 
sur  J.  J.  Rousseau."  Conviction  led  her  to  oppose 
Bonaparte,  whom  she  enraged  with  pinpricks  of 
irony.  Upon  her  second  banishment  from  France 
she  went  to  Germany,  which,  as  was  then  said, 
"ruled  the  kingdom  of  the  air."  There  she  sought 
out  the  literary  celebrities  at  Weimar.  Goethe  put 
her  off  on  Schiller.  This  poet  put  her  off  on  Wil- 
helm  Schlegel,  the  critic,  who  helped  her  gather 
the  material  for  her  celebrated  book  on  German 
institutions,  "L'Allemagne." 

The  exile  of  Madame  de  Stael  was  followed  by 
a  reorganization  of  the  French  Institute,  which 
practically  reduced  that  body  to  a  nullity. 


112  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  Jan.  i804 


T 


1804 

'HE  new  year  opened  amid  general  feverish 
The  Bou-  I  preparations  for  war.  At  Boulogne,  Napo- 
campment  leon  had  gathered  a  flotilla  of  fiat-bottomed, 

ships  and  an  army  of  120,000  veterans,  who  were 
constantly  drilled  in  the  tactics  of  embarkation.  It 
was  only  necessary  for  Napoleon  to  be  master  of  the 
Channel  for  a  few  hours  to  make  the  descent  upon 
England  a  reality.  Meanwhile  Englishmen  were 
distracted  by  the  growing  opposition  to  the  gov- 
ernment at  home  and  the  alarming  mental  condi- 
tion of  their  king.  Parliament  asked  for  explicit . 
information  on  the  subject.  This  led  to  prolonged 
debates  between  the  Ministry  on  one  side  and  Fox, 
Pitt  and  Canning  on  the  other.  Finally  the  House 
was  informed  that  the  king  was  in  a  fair  way  to 
recovery.  The  opposition  returned  to  the  attack 
on  the  subject  of  naval  defence.  Pitt  practically 
moved  a  vote  of  censure  of  the  Admiralty.  De- 
feated in  this,  Fox  next  opposed  a  government  bill 
to  increase  the  regular  army  at  the  expense  of  the 
volunteer  system.  The  government  won  by  a  ma- 
jority of  fifty-five,  but  Addington's  Ministry  was 
so  shaken  at  these  repeated  onslaughts  that  late  in 
^^  ^  April  the  Cabinet  resolved  to  resign.  On  May  8, 
Pow^el-'^*^  Pitt  was  once  more  called  to  power.  Fox  was  left 
out  of  his  Cabinet. 


1804  Feb.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  113 

During  the  interval,  Napoleon  put  the  finishing 
strokes  to  the  foundation  of  his  Empire.  Some  time 
previous  to  this  Fox  had  written  to  his  nephew  that 
the  rumor  was  current  that  Bonaparte  would  soon 
proclaim  himself  Emperor  of  the  Gauls.  The  im- 
pending war  with  England  was  favorable  to  the 
enterprise.  By  way  of  prelude  an  elaborate  plot  conspiracy 
on  the  First  Consul's  life  was  discovered  by  theBoaaparte  / 
police.  George  Cadoudal,  a  Breton  gentleman,  was 
suspected  of  negotiations  with  the  Count  of  Artois 
and  the  English  government  to  murder  Bonaparte. 
Suddenly  the  French  secret  police  made  a  number 
of  arrests.  Cadoudal  was  brought  to  trial  and  exe- 
cuted. On  April  6,  Pichegru  was  found  strangled 
in  prison.  Captain  Wright,  the  commander  of  the 
vessel  which  brought  Pichegru  to  France,  was 
murdered  in  prison.  General  Moreau,  the  hero  of 
Hohenlinden,  was  tried  for  high  treason.  Jury  trial 
in  his  case  was  suspended,  and  Thuriot,  one  of  the 
associates  of  Robespierre,  was  placed  in  charge  of 
the  prosecution.  Of  the  forty-seven  prisoners, 
twenty  were  condemned  to  death,  five  sentenced 
to  imprisonment,  and  the  rest  acquitted.  Moreau 
was  sentenced  to  two  years  in  prison.  "I  only 
wished    to    pardon    him,"    said    Napoleon    to    the  ^ 

Judges.  Judge  Clavier  rejoined:  "But  who  will 
pardon  us?"  Armand  Polignac,  one  of  the  pris- 
oners, was  spared  from  death  only  by  the  interces- 
sion of  Josephine  Bonaparte.  Moreau's  sentence 
"was  commuted  by  Napoleon,  who  banished  him  for 

''  *  '  Qener&S 

life.     The  unfortunate  general  with  his  wife  betook  ganfsh'ed 
himself  to  America. 


114  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  March  1804 

In  the  principality  of  Baden,  twelve  miles  from 
the  French  frontier,  there  remained  the  Duke  of 
Knghien,  one  of  the  Bourbon  princes.  He  was  said 
to  be  implicated  in  the  conspiracy.  On  March  15, 
a  troop  of  French  soldiers  made  a  dash  across  the 
border  and  arrested  the  prince  in  his  house  at  Etten- 
Execution  hcin.  He  was  taken  by  Savary  to  the  Fort  of  Vin- 
d'Eaghiea  ^ennes,  where  a  grave  had  already  been  dug  for 
him.  On  the  night  of  his  arrival  he  was  court- 
martialled  and  shot.  His  body  was  scarcely  cold 
when  the  French  Senate,  at  the  suggestion  of  Na- 
poleon's chief  of  police,  Fouch^,  hastened  to  gratify 
the  First  Consul's  ambitions:  "You  are  founding," 
they  said,  "a  new  era,  but  you  ought  to  make  it  last 
forever.  Splendor  is  nothing  without  duration.  Do 
not  delay,  great  man,  to  accomplish  your  work! 
Render  it  immortal  like  your  glory!  You  have 
rescued  us  from  the  chaos  of  the  past.  You  make 
us  blessed  with  benefits  of  the  present.  Guarantee 
for  us  the  future!" 

Bonaparte  begged  for  time  wherein  to  consider 
this  offer  of  a  crown.  While  he  was  considering, 
the  rest  of  the  world  awoke.  At  the  news  of  the 
iurope*"  Duke  of  Enghien's  death  a  thrill  of  horror  seized 
the  princes  of  Europe.  Chateaubriand,  the  poet, 
resigned  his  office  as  ambassador  in  Switzerland. 
The  court  of  Russia  put  on  mourning.  The  Rus- 
sian charge-d'affaires  in  Paris  lodged  a  formal  pro- 
test against  the  execution  of  Enghien  and  the  inva- 
sion of  German  territory.  Napoleon,  on  the  other 
hand,  issued  orders  to  the  German  States  to  expel 
all  French  Royalists  and  English  subjects  irom  their 


1804  May  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  115 

dominions.  The  British  ambassador  at  Munich  re 
ceived  bis  passports.  Other  German  princes  has- 
tened to  execute  Napoleon's  orders.  The  Austrian 
Mmister  told  the  French  ambassador  that  his  master 
"understood  the  necessities  of  politics."  But  at 
the  Diet  of  Eegensburg  official  protests  were  raised 
against  Napoleon  on  the  part  of  Russia  and  Sweden. 
Prussia  immediately  allied  herself  to  Russia  in  aP^^ggf^^*"^ 
secret  treaty  in  which  both  agreed  to  declare  war  fiance 
"on  the  first  encroachment  of  the  French  govern- 
ment upon  the  States  of  the  North."  Napoleoa 
answered  Russia's  protest  with  a  cutting  allusion 
to  the  unpunished  death  of  the  late  Czar.  "The 
complaint  now  raised  by  Russia,"  he  wrote,  "leads 
us  to  ask  whether,  when  England  was  meditating  the 
assassination  of  Paul,  if  Russia  had  been  informed 
that  the  conspirators  were  assembled  one  league 
from  her  frontier,  she  would  not  have  hastened  to 
seize  them."  At  the  same  time  Talleyrand  was 
instructed  to  recall  the  French  ambassador  from 
St.  Petersburg.  Count  D'Ouvril,  the  Russian  am- 
bassador, was  instructed  to  leave  Paris  unless  four  tum  to"" 

France 

points  were  granted:  1.  The  French  evacuation  of 
Naples.  2.  A  convention  on  Italian  affairs.  3.  An 
indemnity  for  the  King  of  Sardinia.  4.  French 
evacuation  of  Northern  Germany.  These  demands 
were  not  granted.  "I  do  not  wish  for  war,"  wrote 
Napoleon,  "but  I  do  not  fear  it  with  any  one.  .  .  . 
I  will  suffer  no  interference  in  France." 

For  the  moment,  France  was  allowed  to  accom- 
plish her  own  destiny.  On  May  18,  Napoleon  ac- 
cepted the  French  Senate's  offer  of  hereditary  em- 


115 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


May  1804 


Napoleon 

maide 

Emperor 


Bona, 
parte'a 
Lieuten- 
ants Re- 
warded 


pire.  Cambacer^s,  the  regicide,  first  saluted  him 
with  the  title  of  Majesty.  "I  accept,"  said  Bona- 
parte, "the  title  which  you  believe  to  be  useful  to 
the  glory  of  the  nation.  I  hope  that  France  will 
never  repent  of  the  honors  with  which  she  endows 
my  family.  At  all  events,  ray  spirit  will  no  longer 
be  with  my  posterity  on  that  day  when  they  shall 
cease  to  merit  the  love  and  confidence  of  la  grande 
nation."  A  procession  of  Senators,  accompanied  by 
trumpets  and  kettledrums,  announced  the  event  to 
the  people  of  Paris.  The  act  was  ratified  by  means 
of  lists  to  which  the  people  signed  their  names.  The 
affirmative  votes  numbered  3,572,329,  as  against 
2,509  negatives.  The  succession  was  to  be  in  the 
male  line,  the  Emperor  having  the  privilege  of 
adopting  the  children  of  his  brothers,  in  default 
of  which,  or  of  direct  issue,  the  crown  was  to 
go  to  Joseph  and  Louis  Bonaparte.  The  consular 
constitution  was  amended  by  an  imperial  decree. 
Cambacdr^s  and  Lebrun,  the  two  outgoing  consuls, 
were  made  arch-chancellor  and  arch-treasurer.  Na- 
poleon's two  brothers  became  grand  elector  and 
grand  constable.  Their  sisters  were  princesses. 
Eighteen  marshals  of  the  empire  were  created. 
They  were  Murat,  Mass€na,  Kellerman,  Soult, 
Brun,  Lannes,  Ney,  Money,  Jourdan,  Augereau, 
Bernadotte,  Mortier,  Davoust,  Bessidres,  Junot,  Le 
Febvre,  Perignon  and  Lessurier.  Of  the  illustrious 
leaders  of  the  Army  of  the  Rhine,  none  were  hon- 
ored. Moreau  was  disgraced,  and  Lecourbe,  hia 
right  hand,  with  Macdonald,  had  to  shun  Pans. 
Moreau 's   house  and  estate  were  given   to  two  ot 


1804  Summer  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  117 

Napoleon's  generals.  A  new  nobility  was  created 
and  the  Order  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  was  enlarged. 
An  imperial  court  was  established  at  the  Tuileries. 

"Whoever,"  says  Madame  de  Stael,  in  speaking ^^«°c|> j 
of  these  days  and  events,  "could  suggest  an  addi- ^''"^"^''^ 
tional  piece  of  etiquette  from  the  olden  time,  pro- 
pose a  new  reverence,  a  novel  mode  of  knocking 
at  the  door  of  an  antechamber,  a  more  ceremonious 
manner  of  presenting  a  petition  or  folding  a  letter, 
was  regarded  as  a  benefactor  of  the  human  race. 
The  code  of  imperial  etiquette  is  the  most  remark- 
able authentic  record  of  human  baseness  that  the 
history  of  the  world  contains." 

The  new  dyrasty  was  recognized  at  "Vienna  and 
Berlin.  Two  months  after  the  assumption  of  the 
imperial   title  by  Napoleon,  Francis  II.  of  Austria  Austria 

■•^  ./  I  '  made  an 

raised  the  dominions  of  the  House  of  Hapsburg  to^™P"* 
the  dignity  of  an  empire  in  place  of  the  dismem- 
bered ancient  German  empire,  of  which  he  had  been 
the  nominal  head.  In  distant  Hayti,  the  negro 
leader,  Dessalines,  assumed  the  title  of  Emperor 
Jean  Jacques  I. 

His  neighbors,  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
viewed  these  proceedings  with  indifierence.  The 
interminable  naval  warfare  between  Great  Britain 
and  France  had  increased  American  shipping  nearly 
fivefold.  The  little  war  against  the  Barbary  pirates 
still  lingered  on,  and  several  attempts  were  made  by 
Commodore  Preble  in  the  Mediterranean  to  bring 
Pasha  Yusuf  of  Tripoli  to  terms  by  bombarding  his 
harbors.  Finally  General  Eaton,  the  American  Con- 
sul at  Tunis,  brought  about  an  alliance  between  the 


118  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Summer  1806 

American  forces  and  those  of  Ilamet,  who  was  then 
commanding  an  army  of  Mamelukes  against  the 
Turks  in  Upper  Egypt.  From  the  other  side, 
Turkey  was  threatened  by  the  Servians,  who  threw 
off  the  Turkish  rule  under  the  leadership  of  Czerny 
Georgos. 
Af^xander  "^^  homc  the  American  people  had  been  deeply 
Hamilton  gj^Qcij-ed  by  the  killing  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  the 
great  Federalist,  in  a  duel  with  Vice-President 
Burr.  President  Jefferson's  first  term  was  draw- 
ing to  a  close.  Aaron  Burr,  who  had  been  defeated 
in  obtaining  the  Presidency  the  last  time,  foresaw 
that  Jefferson  would  be  renominated,  and  that  he 
would  fail  again.  While  holding  the  office  of  Vice- 
President,  he  became  a  candidate  for  the  governor- 
ship of  New  York,  hoping  to  strengthen  thereby 
his  candidacy  for  the  Presidency.  The  powerful 
influence  of  Hamilton  prevented  Burr's  election. 
Burr  sought  a  quarrel  with  Hamilton  and  chal- 
lenged him  to  a  duel.  On  the  morning  of  July  11, 
on  the  heights  of  the  Hudson,  opposite  New  York, 
he  shot  Hamilton  dead  after  Hamilton  had  declined 
to  fire.  Duelling  came  into  disfavor  in  America 
from  that  day.  Burr  was  indicted  for  murder  and 
sought  refuge  in  the  South.     After  the  expiration 

Aaron  Burr  o  o  r 

Disgraced  ^f  jjjg  Vicc-Presidcncy,  he  conceived  a  plan  to  found 
a  Western  Empire  composed  of  the  southernmost 
States  of  the  Union  and  Mexico.  Thomas  Jefferson 
was  re-elected. 

By  the  death  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  America 
lost  one  of  her  great  statesmen.  He  was  bom  in 
the  West  Indies  of  English  and  French  parentage. 


1804  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  US 

Having  been  sent  to  school  in  New  York,  he  joined 
the  American  Revolution  at  the  age  of  seventeen. 
He  served  early  in  the  Revolutionary  war  as  a  cav- 
alry officer  and  later  on  General  Washington's  staff. 
At  the  end  of  the  war  he  married  the  daughter  of 
General  Schuyler.  Next  he  served  in  the  Conti- 
nental Congress  and  the  Constitutional  Convention. 
Soon  he  became  the  leader  of  the  Federal  party 
in  New   York.     Of  the  eighty-five   papers  in   the 

°      "^  ^    ^  .The  Feder. 

"Federalist,"  more  than  fifty  were  written  by  him.  aiistPaperc 
In  1789  he  entered  Washington's  Cabinet  as  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury.     When  war  broke  out  with 
France,  he  was  made   Inspector-General.     In  poli- 
tics he  was  the  opponent  both  of  Jefferson  and  Burr. 

Another  famous  man  who  died  during  this  year^l*'^'^^*^ 
was  Immanuel  Kant,  the  great  German  philosopher. 
His  metaphysical  doctrines  belonged  to  a  closely 
connected  system  of  reasoning  begun  by  Hume 
and  ended  by  Hegel.  As  an  ethical  thinker  he 
first  achieved  fame  at  Konigsberg  in  1781.  The 
existence  of  an  authoritative  moral  law  (his  so- 
called  "categorical  imperative"),  he  contended,  im- 
plied immortality  of  the  soul  and  the  existence  of 
a  power  above.  The  theory  is  best  put  forward 
in  Wordsworth's  famous  "Ode  to  Duty."  Kant's 
teachings  excited  persistent  controversies  through- 
out Germany.  His  doctrines  were  summed  up  in 
his  "Critique  of  Pure  Reason"  (1781),  "Critique 
of  Practical  Reason"  (1787),  and  "Critique  of  the 
Faculty  of  Judgment"  (1790).  When  this  philoso- 
pher died,  it  could  be  said  of  him  that  the  whole 
of  his  life  had  conformed  to  his  teachings. 


120  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Dec.iSM 

Id  contrast  to  this,  the  latest  utterances  of  Napo. 
leon  conflicted  oddly  with  his  acts.  On  December 
1,  the  French  Senate  presented  to  Bonaparte  the  re- 
sults of  the  plebiscite  by  which  he  was  elected  Em- 
peror. Next  day  Napoleon  and  his  wife,  Joseph- 
ine were  solemnly  crowned  as  Emperor  and  Em- 
press in  the  Cathedral  of  Notre  Dame.     Pope  Pius 

?rcwi^°  VII.  officiated.  When  the  Pope  reached  for  the 
mperor  ^,j,q^^  Napolcon  snatchcd  it  out  of  his  hands  and 
placed  it  on  his  own  head.  In  his  first  imperial 
proclamation  to  the  Senate,  Napoleon  said:  "If 
death  do  not  overtake  me  in  the  midst  of  my  en- 
terprises, I  hope  to  leave  to  posterity  a  memory 
which  shall  serve  forever  either  as  an  example  or 
as  a  reproach  to  my  successors.  ...  I  do  not  de- 
sire to  increase  the  territory  of  the  Empire.  I  have 
no  ambition  to  exert  influence  in  Europe.  No  other 
State  shall  be  incorporated  in  the  Empire  under  my 
rule."  Eef erring  to  his  foreign  relations  he  said: 
"The  spirit  of  Catherine  the  Great  will  watch  over 

aglfifst      the  counsels  of  Alexander.     He  will  remember  that, 

Kussia 

situated  far  from  France  as  he  is,  he  could  neither 
reach  us  nor  disturb  our  peace." 

The  close  of  this  year  was  marked  by  an  absolute 
rupture  between  Spain  and  Great  Britain,  Spain 
had  been  in  a  measure  compelled  to  purchase  peace 
from  France  by  the  payment  of  a  large  subsidy, 
the  amount  of  which  was  kept  carefully  concealed 
from  the  British  Cabinet.  When  the  facts  were 
learned,  the  English  Minister  In  Madrid  remon- 
strated against  the  payment  of  such  money.  It 
was  not  long  after  discovered  that  a  squadron  of 


1804  Dec.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  121 

Spanish  line-of-battle  ships  were  equipped  and 
ready  to  sail  for  Ferrol,  where  a  French  fleet 
awaited  their  junction,  and  that  the  Spanish  ves- 
sels would  put  to  sea  the  moment  that  four  Spaa-g^. 
ish  frigates,  with  the  subsidy  on  board  in  specie,  |?ealure 
should  arrive  from  America.  The  British  Cabinet  '''^ 
immediately  issued  orders  to  Lord  Nelson  in  the 
Mediterranean,  Lord  Cornwallis  on  the  Brest  sta- 
tion, and  Admiral  Cochrane  off  Ferrol,  to  prevent 
the  sailing  of  both  the  French  and  Spanish  squad- 
rons; they  also  directed  each  of  the  three  naval 
commanders  to  detach  two  frigates  to  cruise  off 
Cadiz,  and  intercept  the  homeward-bound  treasure- 
ships  of  Spain.  Four  of  the  six  British  frigates 
soon  fell  in  with  the  four  Spanish  ships  off  Cadiz. 
The  Spanish  commodore  declined  to  submit  to  aa 
equal  force,  and  a  naval  engagement  was  fought. 
It  ended  in  the  blowing  up  of  one  of  the  Spanish 
ships,  and  the  capture  of  the  other  three,  with  ten 
millions  of  dollars  on  board. 

The  capture  of  these  frigates,  before  any  formal 
announcemen :   of    hostilities,    produced    the  result 
which    might    have    been    anticipated;    to    wit,    asnaind©- 
declaration  of  war  by  Spain  against  Great  Britain.  onEngiamfl 


XlXth  Century— Vol.  1— t 


122  A   BISTORY    OF   THE  Jan.  1806 


1805 

IT  has  remained  a  subject  for  conjecture  to  this  day 
whether  Napoleon's  preparations  for  invading 
England  were  serious  or  intended  only  as  a  feint. 
At  all  events  he  proceeded  so  earnestly  at  Boulogne 
that  all  the  world  anxiously  awaited  the  blow.  .  To 
Napoleon  it  afforded  an  excellent  excuse  for  keep- 
ing large  bodies  of  troops  on  their  feet  ready  for 
Napoleon's  iustaut  action.  It  was  at  this  time  that  Napoleon 
Eeforma  perfected  his  new  military  system.  He  divided  his 
army,  in  the  first  instance,  into  corps  of  from  twenty 
to  thirty  thousand  men,  each  of  which  was  intrusted 
to  a  marshal  of  the  Empire.  Again  he  separated 
these  corps  into  four  or  five  divisions,  under  the 
command  of  generals  who  received  their  orders 
from  the  marshal.  In  this  way,  ths  generals  be- 
came familiar  with  the  qualities  of  their  officers 
and  the  officers  with  the  capacity  and  disposition 
of  their  men;  an  esprit  de  corps  was  formed,  not 
only  among  the  officers  of  the  same  regiment,  but 
among  those  of  the  same  division  and  corps.  Early 
in  January,  after  Admiral  Villeneuve  had  suc- 
ceeded in  taking  a  French  squadron  out  of  Toulon 
past  the  ever-watchful  cruisers  of  Great  Britain, 
only  to  be  pursued  to  the  West  Indies  by  Nelson 
— Napoleon   explained    to    his   privy   council   that 


1805  Jan.  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  123 

the  Boulogne  encampment  was  maintained  but  to 
hoodwink  the  continental  neighbors  of  France. 
He  justified  his  expenditure  of  thirty  million 
francs,  for  twenty  thousand  artillery  horses  and 
the  like,  by  the  fact  that  he  was  now  able  to 
throw  an  army  into  the  field  within  twenty  days  France 

ready  for 

— one  month   earlier  than  Austria  could   mobilize  instant 

Mobilize* 

her  artillery.  Yet  the  preparations  at  Boulogne'^''"' 
were  so  thorough  that  Napoleon  could  afford  to 
bide  his  time  for  a  favorable  opportunity  to  make 
a  dash  across  the  Channel  after  all.  Whichever 
way  he  turned  he  did  not  mean  to  be  caught  nap- 
ping. 

When  Austria,  under  the  promise  of  more  sub- 
sidies from  England,  started  to  reorganize  her  ar- 
tillery service,  Napoleon  curtly  told  the  Austrian 
ambassador  in  Paris  that  he  and  his  marshals  looked  ^°J,ng<j 
forward  to  eating  their  Christmas  dinner  in  Vienna. 

Early  in  1805  the  Czar  had  sent  special  envoys 
to  London  to  arrange  for  a  coalition  against  France. 
Napoleon  at  the  same  time  wrote  another  personal 
letter  to  George  III.  of  England.  It  ran  in  this 
wise: 

"Sir   and    Brother — Called    to   the  throne   of  Final 
France  by  Providence,  my  first  sentiment  is  a  wish  spondenoa 
for  peace.    J^  ranee  and  England  abuse  taeir  prosper-  land 
ity.  .  .   .     What  can  your  people  hope   from  war? 
To  form  a  coalition  with  some  powers  of  the  Con- 
tinent ?     The  Continent  will  remain  tranquil.      A 
coalition  can  only  increase  the  preponderance  and 
continental   greatness    of    France.    ...      If    your 
Majesty  will   but   reflect,   you  must  perceive   that 
the  war  is  without  an  object,  without  any  worthy 


124  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Jan.  1805 

result  to  yourself.  ...  Is  not  the  world  large 
enough  for  our  two  nations  to  live  in  it?  ...  I 
trust  Your  Majesty  will  believe  in  the  sincerity 
of  my  sentiments  and  my  wish  to  give  you  every 
proof  of  them.  Napoleon." 

Lord   Mulgrave,   the   British   Foreign   Secretary, 
England's  ggj^^  ^^  reply  the  concluding  sentences  of  which  read 
thus: 

"Conformably  to  his  desire  for  the  future  safety 
and  tranquillity  of  Europe,  His  Majesty  feels  it  im- 
possible to  answer  more  particularly  to  the  over- 
tures that  have  been  made  to  him  till  he  has  time 
to  communicate  with  the  powers  on  the  Continent 
with  whom  he  is  engaged  in  confidential  relations, 
and  particularly  with  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  who 
has  given  the  strongest  proofs  of  his  wisdom,  the 
elevation  of  the  sentiments  with  which  he  is  ani- 
mated, and  the  living  interest  which  he  takes  in 
the  safety  and  independence  of  the  Continent." 

Napoleon  transmitted  his  correspondence  to  the 
Prime  Minister  of  Spain,  and  wrote  to  the  Emperor 
of  Austria  of  the  intended  accession  of  his  brother 
Joseph  to  the  crown  of  Italy.  Napoleon  himself 
journeyed  to  Italy,  after  a  rapid  tour  along  the 
Rhine  to  Aix-la-Chapelle,  ostensibly  for  the  pur- 
Napoleon  pose  of  visitiug  the  tomb  of  Charlemagne.  In  Italy 
he  and  Josephine  revisited  the  scenes  of  his  cam- 
paigns and  held  a  grand  review  upon  the  battlefield 
of  Marengo. 

On  January  24,  England  declared  war  with  Spain 
for  placing  her  foroes  at  the  disposal  of  France. 
Early    in   March,    Napoleon    informed   the    French 


1805  Spring  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  126 

Senate  that  he  would  accept  for  himself  the  crown 
of  Italy.  The  Pope  left  France  and  returned  to 
Eome,  foiled  in  his  efforts  to  regain  his  lost  tem- 
poral powers.  j 
About  the  same  time  Jefferson  and  Clinton  took  JeffTJ^'n  / 
the  oath  of  office  as  President  and  Vice-President  of  Jatel"' 
the  United  States.  On  March  6,  General  William 
Eaton,  the  American  Consul  at  Tunis,  started  out 
from  Alexandria  on  his  overland  expedition  against 
Yusuf,  the  usurper  of  the  throne  of  Tripoli.  With 
General  Eaton  went  a  picked  body  of  Mame- 
luke horsemen,  Greek  mercenaries  and  a  number 
of  Egyptian  fellahs.  They  traversed  the  Desert  of 
Barca  in  a  long  march  of  over  a  thousand  miles, 
and  finally  arrived  before  the  Tripolitan  harbor 
of  Derne.  An  American  fleet  opportunely  arrived 
before  the  harbor  at  the  same  time.  Their  ships 
bombarded  the  castle,  and  American  seamen  were 
landed  to  help  General  Eaton  and  his  motley  fol- 

__  Americans 

lowers.  They  stormed  Derne  on  April  25.  Yusuf  storm 
sued  for  peace.  On  June  4  a  treaty  was  concluded 
between  the  United  States  and  the  last  of  the  Bar- 
bary  pirates.  The  American  prisoners  at  Tripoli 
were  set  free  and  the  pirates  relinquished  all  claim 
to  further  tribute. 

In  the  meanwhile  England  had  to  wage  more 
wars  in  India.  Jaswant  Rao  Holkar  and  his  general, 
Ameer  Khan,  the  former  allies  of  Sindia  and  theaiahra^ 

War 

Mahrattas,  stirred  up  another  war  with  General 
Wellesley,  the  British  High  Commissioner.  Holkar 
was  defeated  in  a  series  of  bloody  battles  by  General 
Lake.     In  the  first  of  these  General  Eraser,  com- 


126 


A    HISTORY    OF   THE 


Bummer  180S 


Napoleon 
crowned 
King  of 
Italy 


Third 
Coalition 
against 
France 


Napoleon' 

Opening 

Move 


manding  the  British  cavalry,  lost  his  life.  In  the 
end  Holkar  had  to  take  to  the  mountains,  and 
India,  for  the  moment,  was  pacified. 

in  spring  a  treaty  had  been  signed  between  Great 
Britain  and  Kussia  to  stop  further  encroachments 
by  ^Napoleon.  King  Gustav  of  Sweden  gave  his 
immediate  adhesion.  Three  weeks  later  Napoleon 
was  crowned  King  of  Italy.  The  Austrian  depen- 
dency of  Genoa  was  annexed  to  Italy.  This  last  act, 
premeditated  by  JSapoleon  for  many  years,  brought 
Austria  into  the  coalition.  The  allies  against 
France  now  included  England,  Eussia,  Austria  and 
Sweden.  Great  Britain  undertook  to  pay  subsidies 
to  all  the  members  of  the  coalition.  France  could 
count  on  the  South  German  States  and  on  Spain. 
The  King  of  Prussia  remained  aloof  in  the  hope  of 
obtaining  Hanover. 

By  the  middle  of  summer  the  political  horizon 
was  surcharged  with  electricity.  Napoleon  wrote  to 
Talleyrand:  "All  my  news  from  Italy  is  warlike. 
Indeed  Austria  no  longer  observes  any  conceal- 
,  ment."  On  August  13,  Napoleon,  through  Talley- 
rand, demanded  the  withdrawal  of  all  Austrian 
troops  to  Bohemia,  so  as  to  leave  him  a  free  hand 
against  England.  Otherwise  he  threatened  imme- 
diate hostilities.  On  the  same  day  he  issued  urgent 
orders  to  Admiral  Villeneuve,  who  had  returned  to 
Ferrol  from  the  West  Indies,  to  join  the  squadron 
at  Brest  and  to  strike  the  English  at  all  hazards. 
"If  with  thirty  ships  my  admirals  fear  to  attack 
twenty-four  British,"  he  concluded  scathingly,  "we 
may  as  well  give  up  all  hope  of  a  navy." 


1805  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  127 


neuve'9 

on 


Villeneuve  at  once   ^ot  to  sea  with  twenty-nine '^'"«- 

^  *'  neuve  ; 

ships  of  the  line.  As  he  sailed,  the  hesitating  |ng,a^d 
admiral  wrote  to  the  French  Minister  of  Marine: 
"The  enemy's  forces,  more  concentrated  than  ever, 
leave  me  little  other  resource  than  to  go  to  Cadiz." 
So  it  turned  out.  Meanwhile  Napoleon  wrote  this 
prophetic  letter  to  Talleyrand : 

My  squadron  sailed  August  14  from  Ferrol  with 
thirty-four  ships;  it  had  no  enemy  in  sight.  If  it 
follows  my  instructions,  joins  the  Brest  squadron 
and  enters  the  Channel,  there  is  still  time.  I  am 
master  of  England.  If  on  the  contrary  my  admirals 
hesitate,  manoeuvre  badly,  and  do  not  fulfil  their 
purpose,  I  have  no  other  resource  than  to  wait  for 
winter  to  cross  with  a  flotilla.  That  operation  is 
risky.  Such  being  the  case,  I  hasten  to  meet  the 
most  pressing  danger.  I  raise  my  camp  here  by 
September  23.  I  shall  have  in  Grermany  200,000  Napoleon's 
and  25,000  in  Naples.  I  march  upon  Vienna,  and  fn'Sria* 
do  not  lay  down  my  arms  until  I  have  Naples 
and  Venice.  Then  I  shall  have  no  more  to  fear 
from  Austria." 

Admiral  Villeneuve,  discouraged  by  adverse  winds  viiieneuve 

takes 

and  an   indecisive  action  with  some  British  ships '■^^"g® 

r    m  Cadiz 

under  Sir  Robert  Calder,  took  his  fleet  to  Cadiz. 
A  small  British  squadron,  commanded  by  CoUing- 
wood,  took  care  of  it  there  until  reinforced  by 
Calder's  squadron,  which  followed  the  French  from 
Ferrol.  Other  British  ships  joined  the  blockade 
from  the  Mediterranean.  With  twenty-six  ships 
of  the  Ime,  CoUingwood  held  the  French  securely 
blocked  until  the  end  of  September.  Then  Nelson 
arrived  from  England  and  took  command.     Napo- 


128  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Sept.  1806 

Icon's  hopes  of  invading  England,  if  ever  genuine, 
were  ended  for  good. 

Napoleon  received  the  news  of  Villeneuve's  fatal 

blunder  with  an  outburst  of  rage.     War  on  land 

was  his  only  course  henceforth.     On  August  24,  he 

summoned   General   Marmont  and  gave  him  secret 

French      marching  orders.     Marmont's  army  corps  left  Bou- 

Armies  on  '='  ./  r 

the  march  [Qgj^Q  jjext  day.  On  the  same  day  Napoleon  wrote 
to  Talleyrand:  "My  decision  is  taken.  My  move- 
ment is  begun.  Three  weeks  hence  I  shall  be  in 
Germany  with  200,000  men."  By  the  end  of  August 
the  whole  French  army  was  in  movement.  Napo- 
leon himself  remained  at  Boulogne  under  the  pre- 
tence of  preparing  to  embark  for  England.  Not 
until  September  24  did  he  leave  France.  Then 
the  Emperor  fairly  flew  to  join  his  army.  On  the 
26th  he  was  at  Strasburg.    The  whole  army  crossed 

cro^^the  tbe  Rhine,  and  on  October  7  the  united  French  forces 
struck  the  Danube  below  Ulm.  "You  have  won 
the  war  with  your  legs,"  said  their  delighted  leader. 
Marmont's  corps  of  20,000  had  marched  for  Mainz. 
Bernadotte,  with  the  20,000  who  had  held  Hanover, 
.        boldly  abandoned  the  North,  and  crossing  through 

vk>iated^  the  Prussian  territory  of  Anspach,  joined  Marmont. 
Thirty  thousand  soldiers  of  the  Southern  German 
States  threw  themselves  into  the  arms  of  the  first 
comer.  This  swelled  the  French  army  to  200,000 
men.  By  the  time  the  Austrians  threw  an  ill- 
mobilized  advance  force  of  60,000  into  Bavaria,  the 
soldiers  of  Bavaria  and  Wurtemberg  had  already 
joined  the  French  at  Stuttgart.  Bernadotte  occu- 
pied Munich. 


1805  Oct.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  129 

The  Austrian  general,  Mack,  stood  at  Ulm  with 
45,000  men  waiting  for  the  50,000  Eussians  under 
Kutusov,  who  were  to  reach  him  by  October  10. 
The  Russians  were  several  days  behindhand.  Mean- 
while the  French  with  four  army  corps  crossed  the 
Danube  nearly  a  week  before  they  were  expected,  ^oss^'the 
The  left  wing  of  the  Austrians  was  turned  and  the- 
Austrian  forces  in  the  Tyrol  were  thus  cut  off. 
Bernadotte's  and  Key's  divisions  pushed  in  between 
General  Mack  and  the  slowly  advancing  Russians,  Army^° 
while  Marmont  swung  around  to  the  Austrian  rear. 
Ney,  Soult  and  Lannes  advanced  their  three  army 
corps  from  Donauwoerth,  while  Murat,  with  his 
cavalry,  made  a  dash  along  the  banks  of  the  Dan- 
ube. The  concerted  movement  was  executed  by 
Napoleon's  seven  marshals  with  admirable  pre- 
cision. Ney  rolled  up  the  Austrians  under  Arch- 
duke Ferdinand  at  Gunzburg  and  again  at  Elchin- Eichlngel* 

rni  1  1  •  en-  i-i  i       Memmin- 

gen.  Three  thousand  prisoners  tell  into  his  bands,  gea 
Soult  overran  Augsburg  and  took  Memmingen,  with 
4,000  prisoners.  Murat  overtook  General  Wer- 
neck's  battalions  marching  out  of  Ulm  and  threw 
them  back  into  the  city,  taking  3,000  prisoners. 
From  all  sides  the  Austrians  were  thrown  into  Ulm. 
There  they  were  completely  surrounded  by  over- 
whelming numbers,  and,  as  it  were,  suffocated.  On 
October  20,  Mack  surrendered  with  23,000  Austri- guj.rgn^gj, 
ans,  without  ever  a  chance  to  fight  a  pitched  battle. 
Napoleon  could  write  to  Josephine: 

"During  all  the  days  of  the  week  I  have  been 

drenched   with  rain  and  my  feet  have  been  nearly 

.frozen.     To-day  I  have  had  some  rest.     I  have  ful« 


130  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Oct.  1806 

tilled  my  designs.  I  have  destroyed  the  Austrian 
army  by  simple  marches.  I  have  taken  60,000 
prisoners,  120  guns,  90  flags,  and  more  than  30 
general  officers.  I  am  content  with  my  army.  We 
have  lost  but  1,500  men,  two-thirds  of  whom  are 
merely  wounded.  I  now  go  in  pursuit  of  the  Kus- 
sians.  They  are  undone.  Adieu,  my  Josephine. 
One  thousand  loving  words  to  you." 

On  the  day  after  this  brilliant  success  the  French 
arms  elsewhere  suffered  irretrievable  disaster.  Before 
quitting  France,  Napoleon  had  given  orders  for  the 
French  fleet  to  enter  the  Mediterranean  to  help 
the  French  army  under  St.  Cyr  to  strike  at  Naples. 

^^aoed^  At  the  same  time  there  was  to  be  a  change  of  com- 
mand. "As  Villeneuve's  excessive  pusillanimity 
will  prevent  him  from  undertaking  this,"  wrote 
Napoleon  to  Decrds,  "we  will  send  to  replace  him 
Admiral  Rosily,  who  will  bear  letters  directing 
Villeneuve  to  return  to  France  and  give  an  account 
of  his  conduct."  On  the  approach  of  Admiral 
Rosily,  Villeneuve,  getting  wind  of  his  mission, 
determined  to  strike  a  blow  on  his  own  behalf.  On 
October  18  he  wrote  to  Decr^s:  "I  will  sail  hence 
to-morrow  if  circumstances  favor."     The  next  day 

He  sails     his  fleet  weighed  anchor.     Nelson,  waiting  far  out- 

forth  for  .  •    /~,-\ 

Battle  side,  at  once  made  sail-  for  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar 
to  bar  the  entrance  to  the  Mediterranean.  Early  on 
the  morning  of  October  21  thirty -three  French  and 
Spanish  ships  of  the  line  with  live  frigates  and  two 
brigs  headed  due  south  for  the  Straits.  The  two 
British  columns  were  nearly  a  mile  apart,  sailing 
parallel  according  to  Nelson's  prearranged  plan  of 


1805  Oct.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  131 

battle.  Nelson  was  on  the  "Victory,"  with  seventy- 
four  guns,  commanding  twelve  ships  on  the  right. 
Collingwood  on  the  "Koyal  Sovereign"  headed 
fifteen  ships  on  the  left  wing.  The  French  and 
Spaniards  steered  south  in  five  columns,  two  of 
whicb  were  detached  to  windward  under  Admiral 
Gravina.  Cape  Trafalgar  loomed  up  twelve  miles 
in  the  distance.  Nelson  hoisted  the  signal:  "Eng- 
land expects  every  man  to  do  his  duty." 

To  the  British  double  column  advance  the  French  TrliSgi 
opposed  a  long  line,  close-hauled,  so  as  to  curve 
away  from  the  point  of  attack.  Admiral  Villeneuve 
was  almost  in  the  centre  on  the  "Bucentaure, "  an 
eighty-gun  ship,  and  Vice- Admiral  Alava  was  but 
a  few  ships  from  him  on  the  "Santa  Anna."  Both 
British  columns  made  for  the  middle  of  the  French 
line,  Nelson's  flagship  heading  for  the  "Bucen- 
taure," while  Collingwood  made  a  dash  for  the 
"Santa  Anna."  "Let  us  do  something  to-day  that 
the  world  will  talk  of  hereafter,"  said  Collingwood. 
So  far  did  the  "Koyal  Sovereign"  outsail,  or  rather 

•^  °  Colling- 

outdrift,  the  rest  of  the  fleet,  that  Collingwood  en-^oodo^ens 
tered  the  enemy's  fire  three-quarters  of  a  mile  ahead 
of  the  rest  at  noon.  For  fully  half  an  hour  he  had 
to  support  the  combined  fire  of  the  enemy's  ships 
quite  alone.  "See!"  cried  Nelson,  as  he  watched 
his  progress,  "see  how  that  noble  fellow  Colling- 
wood carries  his  ship  into  action!"  and  Collingwood 
at  the  same  time  observed  to  his  officers,  "What 
would  Nelson  give  to  be  here!"  Collingwood's  first 
broadside  raked  the  "Santa  Anna"  from  stern  to 
stem.    Her  decks  ran  with  blood.    Then  the  "Royal 


132  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Oct.  1805 

Sovereign"  luffed  up  close  to  her  chief  antagonist, 
and  side  by  side  with  the  "Santa  Anna"  she  fought 
off  the  enemy's  ships  that  closed  in  upon  the  two. 
At  last  Collingwood's>  next-in-line  came  up  with  the 
"Royal  Sovereign,"  and  together  they  sank  or  cap- 
tured twelve  of  Admiral  Alava's  sixteen  ships 
forming  the  rear  line.  Nelson,  at  the  head  of  his 
squadron,  did  not  reach  the  "Bucentaure"  Until 
half  an  hour  after  his  right  wing  was  in  full  battle. 
Nelson's  flagship  raked  the  "Bucentaure,"  but  a 
ship  close  to  leeward  blocked  her  way.  A  furious 
"Victory"  close-range  fight  followed  between  the  "Victory" 

and  "Re- 
doubtable" and  the  "Redoubtable."      The  English  broadsides 

were  stronger,  but  the  French  swept  the  "Vic- 
tory's" decks  with  their  musketry.  Of  the  French 
crew  of  643  but  35  were  left,  and  they  kept  up  the 
fight.  At  half-past  one  Nelson  was  struck  by  a 
bullet  fired  from  the  Frenchman's  rigging.     He  fell 

Death  of 

Nelson  on  the  deck  mortally  wounded.  As  his  ship  trem- 
bled under  the  thunder  of  her  continued  broadsides, 
Nelson  exclaimed:  "Ah,  Victory,  Victory,  how 
thou  dost  rack  my  brain."  "They  have  done  for 
me  at  last,"  he  said.  While  they  carried  him  down 
to  the  cockpit  he  covered  his  face  and  epaulets  with 
a  handkerchief,  lest  the  news  of  his  injury  should 
discourage  the  fighting  sailors.  When  they  brought 
him  news  that  fifteen  of  the  enemy's  ships  had  been 
taken,  he  whispered:  "  'Tis  well,  but  I  bargained 
for  twenty."  Lord  Nelson  died  a  few  moments 
after  the  "Achille"  and  the  "Intrepide"  had 
blown  up. 

Perez  Galdos,  in  his  "Episodios  Nacionales,"  has 


i805Oct.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  133 

given  a  realistic  picture  of  the  scenes  within  the^^^^^^.^ 
gloomy  recesses  of  the  great  Spanish  four-decker, ''^°^"^'"'* 
"Santissima  Trinidad,"  as  the  British  ships  hung 
on  her  flanks  and  wasted  her  with  their  fire:  "The 
English  shot  had  torn  our  sails  to  tatters.  It  was 
as  if  huge  invisible  talons  had  been  dragging  at 
them.  Fragments  of  spars,  splinters  of  wood,  thick 
hempen  cables  cut  up  as  corn  is  cut  by  the  sickle, 
fallen  blocks,  shreds  of  canvas,  bits  of  iron,  and 
hundreds  of  other  things  that  had  been  wrenched 
away  by  the  enemy's  fire,  were  piled  along  the 
deck,  where  it  was  scarcely  possible  to  move  about. 
From  moment  to  moment  men  fell — some  into  the 
sea;  and  the  curses  of  the  combatants  mingled  with 
groans  of  the  wounded,  so  that  it  was  often  difiicult 
to  decide  whether  the  dying  were  blaspheming  God  particu- 
or  the  nghters  were  calbng  upon  Him  tor  aid.  1  Fight 
helped  in  the  very  dismal  task  of  carrying  the 
wounded  into  the  hold,  where  the  surgeons  worked. 
Some  died  ere  we  could  convey  them  thither; 
others  had  to  undergo  frightful  operations  ere  their 
worn-out  bodies  could  get  an  instant's  rest.  It  was 
much  more  satisfactory  to  be  able  to  assist  the  car- 
penter's crew  in  temporarily  stopping  some  of  the 
holes  torn  by  shot  in  the  ship's  hull.  .  .  Blood 
ran  in  streams  about  the  deck;  and,  in  spite  of  the 
sand,  the  rolling  of  the  ship  carried  it  hither  and 
thither  until  it  made  strange  patterns  on  the  planks. 
The  enemy's  shot,  fired,  as  they  were,  from  very 
short  range,  caused  horrible  mutilations.  .  .  The 
ship  creaked  and  groaned  as  she  rolled,  and  through 
a  thousand  holes  and  crevices  in  her  strained  hull 


Capture 
Villeneuve 


134  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Oct.  1805 

the  sea  spurted  in  and  began  to  flood  the  hold. 
The  'Trinidad's'  people  saw  the  commander-in-chief 
haul  down  his  flag;  heard  the  'Achille'  blow  up  and 
hurl  her  six  hundred  men  into  eternity;  learned 
that  their  own  hold  was  so  crowded  with  wounded 
that  no  more  could  be  received  there.  Then,  when 
all  three  masts  had  in  succession  been  brought 
crashing  down,  the  defence  collapsed,  and  the  'San- 
tissima  Trinidad'  struck  her  flag."  When  the 
i'rench  flagship  struck,  she  was  taken  possession 
of  by  a  tiny  boat's  crew  from  the  "Conqueror," 
consisting  of  three  marines  and  two  sailors.  The 
^j  marine  officer  coolly  locked  the  powder  magazine 
of  the  Frenchman,  put  the  key  in  his  pocket,  left 
two  of  his  men  in  charge  of  the  surrendered 
"Bucentaure,"  put  Villeneuve  and  his  two  captains 
in  his  boat  with  his  two  marines  and  himself,  and 
pulled  off  in  search  of  the  "Conqueror."  In  the 
smoke  and  confusion,  however,  he  could  not  find 
that  ship,  and  so  carried  the  captured  French  ad- 
miral to  the  "Mars." 
French  Bv  two  in  the  afternoon  the  enemy's  fleet  was  cut 

and  Span-  ''  •' 

ish  losses  JQ  ^^Q^  Altogether  the  French  and  Spaniards  lost 
eighteen  ships.  At  five  in  the  evening  Admiral 
Gravina  retreated  to  Cadiz  with  the  remnants  of  the 
allied  fleet.  Only  five  French  ships  got  away. 
Admiral  Villeneuve  and  the  Spanish  Rear- Admiral 
Cisneros  were  taken  prisoners.  Admiral  Gravina 
and  Rear- Admiral  Alava  were  wounded,  and  the 
French  Rear- Admiral  was  killed.    Villeneuve,  later, 

Jdmmfil^^  committed  suicide.  Four  of  the  French  ships  that 
escaped  shortly  afterward  fell  a  prey  to  the  British 


MOB  Oct.  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  135 

off  Cape  Vilano.  After  a  four  hours'  fight  between 
Commodore  Strachan  and  the  French  Rear- Admiral, 
Dumarois,  thej  struck  their  colors. 

Napoleon  took  pains  to  suppress  all  reports  of 
this  disastrous  battle  in  France.  In  a  subsequent 
message  to  the  Corps  Legislatif  he  thus  referred  to 
it:  "We  have  lost  some  ships  by  storm  after  a 
battle  imprudently  undertaken."  As  a  matter  of 
fact  the  battle  of  Trafalgar  at  one  stroke  destroyed  iDgTe^su*it» 

,  c    o       •  1       r    n  T  ofTrafal- 

the  sea  power  oi  bpam  and  of  Jb  ranee.     Its  conse-  gar 
qnences  have  lasted  to  the  present  day. 

In  Italy  the  command  of  a  French  force  number- 
ing 90,000  men  had  been  given  to  Massena.  The 
Austrians  confronted  him  with  their  strongest  army 
numbering  75,000  under  Archduke  Charles.  FaceJuiy"* 
to  face,  on  the  opposite  banks  of  the  Adige,  the 
two  armies  waited  only  for  the  signal  of  attack. 
Massena,  hearing  how  favorable  matters  stood  in 
Germany,  resolved  to  strike  simultaneously  with 
Napoleon.  On  October  18  he  crossed  the  Adige, 
but  encountered  such  a  murderous  fire  from  the 
Austrian  trenches  that,  after  securing  a  lodgment, 
he  had  to  fall  back.  On  October  20  the  French 
army  crossed  the  river  a  second  time  and  stormed 
the  heights  of  Valpantena  and  St.  Michael  amid 
great  slaughter.  On  October  30,  upon  the  news  of 
the  surrender  of  Ulm,  Massdna  attacked  very  vigor- 
ously all  along  the  line.  A  bloody  battle  followed 
at  Caldiero,  in  which   both  sides  suffered  severely,  gattie  oe 

'  -^     Caldiero 

In  the  end  3,000  Austrians  were  made  prisoners. 
A  detached  column  of  5,000  under  Hillinger  like- 
wise had  to  surrender  to  the  French.      Archduke 


136  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Nov.  1805 

Charles,  after  obtaining  a  short  armistice,  fell  back 
and  began  a  steady  retreat  toward  Vincenza  and 
Venice.  The  French  followed  step  by  step.  All 
attempts  to  reinforce  him  from  the  Tyrol  were 
frustrated. 

In  Germany,  Napoleon  followed  up  the  surrender 
of  Mack  by  sending  his  cavalry  under  Murat  after 
the  detached  Austrian  battalions,  with  instructions 
to  come  in  touch  with  the  approaching  Russian 
column.  Kutusov,  the  Russian  general,  fell  back 
over  the  Danube.  Murat  failed  to  engage  him,  but 
Capture  of  pushcd  ou  to  pluck  the  easy  prize  of  Vienna.     His 

Vienna  ' 

victorious  squadrons  rode  through  Vienna  on  No- 
vember 13.  As  a  result  of  this  tactical  mistake  on 
the  part  of  Napoleon's  brother-in-law,  Mortier's  ad- 
vance columns  under  General  Gazan  were  almost 
annihilated  by  the  Russians.  Murat  received  peremp- 
tory orders  to  leave  Vienna  and  attack  the  Russians 
on  their  right  flank  in  Moravia.  In  a  stubborn  fight 
at  HoUabrunn  the  Russian  general,  Bagration,  held 
the  French  long  enough  to  prevent  the  Russian  flank 
from  being  turned.  The  Russian  reserve  of  45,000, 
Allies  Join  uudcr  Gcucrals  Bennigsen  and  Essen,  came  up  and 
joined  forces  with  Kutusov  and  the  remnants  of 
the  Austrian  armies.  Napoleon,  standing  at  Brunn 
with  80,000,  found  himself  confronted  by  an  army 
of  100,000  allies.  To  protect  his  flanks.  Napoleon 
had  to  extend  his  array  far  into  Bohemia,  Hungary, 
and  down  to  the  Alps.  Behind  him  in  Italy,  Rus- 
sian and  British  forces  had  landed  at  Naples  to 
throw  the  French  out  of  Taranto. 

At  this  critical  moment  the  Prussian  prime  minis- 


I 

I 


forces 


1805  Dec.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  187 

ter,  Voa  Haugwitz,  appeared  at  Napoleon's  head-  Tiireat- 
quarters.  By  way  of  reparation  for  Bernadotte'suemauds 
march  through  Prussian  Ansbach,  he  demanded 
immediate  evacuation  of  all  recent  French  acquisi- 
tions. Otherwise  Prussia  stood  ready  to  join  the 
allies  with  an  army  of  180,000  men.  As  it  was, 
the  King  of  Prussia  had  already  shown  his  temper 
by  permitting  the  Russians  to  march  through  Prus- 
sian Silesia.  For  Napoleon,  it  became  all-important 
to  hold  the  Prussians  off,  if  only  for  a  few  days. 
To  gain  this  time  he  sent  Von  Haugwitz  to  Talley- 
rand at  Vienna  with  private  instructions  to  that 
master  of  diplomacy  to  prolong  his  proceedings 
with  the  inconvenient  envoy  as  long  as  he  possibly 
could.  In  the  interval  all  might  be  won  by  a  bold 
stroke  of  fortune. 

In  the  camp  of  the  allies  the  youthful  Czar  of^'ex- 

'■  ''  ancier  8         ■; 

Russia  felt  equally  impatient.  Alexander  burned  ^^ip®'"*'" 
to  measure  his  imperial  generalship  against  that 
of  the  Corsican  upstart,  and,  forthwith.  General 
Weyrother  was  ordered  to  draw  up  a  plan  of  battle. 
The  allies,  in  their  plan  of  attack,  meant  to  turn 
the  right  flank  of  the  French  army,  to  cut  them 
off  from  Vienna  and  drive  them  to  the  Bohemian 
mountains.  They  sought  to  effect  this  by  one 
of  the  most  hazardous  operations  in  war — a  flank 
march  in  column  in  front  of  a  concentrated  enemy — 
and  that  enemy  Napoleon.  Accordingly,  early  on 
December  1,  they  moved  forward  in  five  columns 
obliquely  across  the  French  position,  while  the  re- 
serve, under  Grandduke  Constantine,  occupied  the 
heights  in  front  of  Austerlitz.     The  moment  that 


Measures 


188  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Dec.  1806 

Napoleon-  saw  this  manoeuvre  undertaken,  he  ex- 
claimed, "That  army  is  mine!" 
co^t^°  ^  His  vanguard  was  at  once  withdrawn  to  lure  on 
the  Rassians.  For  the  sake  of  better  concentration, 
Napoleon  fell  back  behind  Brunn,  where  Bernadotte 
and  Davoust  could  the  more  readily  join  him  with 
their  army  corps.  The  Russians  harassed  the  right 
flank  of  the  French.  To  detach  the  Russian  forces 
still  further,  Napoleon,  on  the  eve  of  battle,  ex- 
tended the  end  of  his  right  flank  in  the  direction  of 
Tellnitz.  The  Russian  general  fell  into  the  trap. 
While  turning  the  distant  French  flank  he  denuded 
the  centre  of  the  allied  battle  line.  Napoleon  had 
planned  to  strike  the  allies  in  their  weak  centre. 
The  better  to  accomplish  his  purpose  he  meant  to 
take  them  by  surprise.  Upon  the  approach  of  the 
allies,  early  next  morning,  Marshal  Soult,  who  held 
the  French  centre,  was  ordered  to  fall  back  from  the 
heights  of  Pratzen.  This  was  done.  The  Russian 
vanguard  hastened  to  climb  the  heights  and  waited 
for  the  rest  to  come  up,  while  the  French  concen- 
trated in  the  valley  below.  All  was  hidden  in  the 
mists  of  winter. 

At  nine  o'clock  the  haze  blew  away  and  the  sun 
rose  glorious  above  the  heights — the  famous  "Sun 
of  Austerlitz."  It  was  Napoleon's  lucky  day,  De- 
cember 2,  the  date  of  his  coronation.  As  soon  as 
the  fog  lifted,  Soult's  columns  dashed  up  the  hill 
and  stormed  the  heights.  The  Russian  guns,  just 
unlimbering  on  the  crest  of  the  hill  of  Pratzen,  were 
turned  against  the  allies.  At  the  point  of  the  bayo- 
net their  infantry  was  driven  down  the  steep  slope 


Austerlitz 


1805  Dec.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  139 

and  threw  the  Russian  reserve  columns  into  inde- ^"^*^''*^* 
scnbable  disorder.  The  struggling  mass  of  allies 
came  under  the  shot  and  shell  of  their  own  cap- 
tured batteries  on  the  hill,  while  the  French  horse 
artillery  dashed  to  other  points  of  vantage.  The 
Russian  guards  made  a  brave  stand  in  the  plain, 
but  they  were  overwhelmed  by  Soult's  compact 
corps  charging  down  the  hill.  Soult  pierced  the 
centre  and  cut  the  allied  army  fairly  in  two.  All 
the  French  reserve  cavalry  under  Murat  crum- 
pled up  the  Austrian  left  wing.  For  a  while  the 
right  flank  still  held  its  own.  The  Russian  horse- 
guards  repulsed  the  French  grenadiers-a-cheval  and 
cut  their  way  through  them  to  the  foot  of  the  emi- 
nence, where  Napoleon  stood  directing  the  battle; 
but  the  combined  forces  of  Soult,  Lannes  and  Da- 
voust  were  too  much  for  them.  Napoleon's  aide- 
de-camp,  Rapp,  was  wounded,  and  the  Russian 
prince,  Ruppin,  was  taken  captive  during  this 
encounter.  Whole  battalions  were  bayoneted  by 
the  French.  The  bridge  at  Aujezd  broke  under 
the  weight  of  fleeing  Russians.  Other  large  bodies 
of  allies  broke  through  the  ice  of  Lake  Satcha, 
which  was  burst  by  means  of  French  artillery  fire. 
Several  thousand  were  drowned  or  taken  prisoners. 
Elsewhere  six  thousand  Austrians  perished,  and 
20,000,  most  of  whom  were  Russians,  were  taken 
alive.  AH  the  stores  and  ammunition  of  the  com- 
bmed  armies  fell  into  Napoleon's  hands.  "I  had 
previously  seen  some  lost  battles,"  says  an  eye- 
witness of  this  frightful  scene,  General  Langeron, 
"but  1  had  no  conception  of  such  a  defeat."     The 


140  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Dec.  1805 

Fi'^'^^r    y^^^g  Czar  wept  as  he  rode  away  from  the  scene 
temw '°    of  the  disaster.     After  him  went  all  that  was  left  of 
the  Russian  army.     The  Austrian  emperor  sought 
out  Napoleon   at   his   headquarters   and   sued    for 
terms.       Thus    ended    the    battle    of    The    Three 
Emperors. 
^an^'%         Through  Von  Haugwitz  at  "Vienna,  Prussia,  in- 
^'■°°*^         stead  of  attacking  Napoleon,  entered  into  a  secret 
treaty  with  the  conqueror  at  Schoenbrunn.     Napo- 
leon remarked:   "Voila  un  compliment  dont  la  for- 
tune  a   changd   I'adresse!"      Prussia's   reward    for 
this  change  of  front   was   to  be   the   dominion  of 
Hanover.     Ten  days  after  the  departure  of  Haug- 
Peaceof     ^^^^  from  Vienna,  Austria  made  peace  with  France 
Pressburg  ^^  Pressburg.     Napoleon's  threat  that  his  marshals 
would  eat  their  Christmas  dinner  in  Vienna  was  ful- 
filled.    Austria  had  to  give  up  28,000  square  miles 
of  territory,  with  three  and  a  half  million  inhabi- 
Venice       tauts.     Venice -and  Dalmatia  went  to  France;   the 

taken  from 

Austria      Tyrol  and  the  free  cities  of  Augsburg  and  Nurem- 
berg to  Bavaria,  which  was  elevated  to  a  kingdom 
South        together  with  Wurtemberg.     Prussia  obtained  Haa- 

German 

Princes      ovcr,  but  lost  Neufchatcl  in  Switzerland  to  France, 

rewarded  '  ' 

and  Anspach  to  Bavaria.  The  treaty  of  Pressburg 
was  followed  by  Napoleon's  famous  proclamation 
against  the  House  of  Naples:  *'We  have  pardoned," 
it  ran,  "that  infatuated  king,  who  has  thrice  done 
everything  to  ruin  himself.  Shall  we  pardon  him 
a  fourth  time  ?  Shall  we  a  fourth  time  trust  a  court 
without  faith,  without  honor,  without  reason  ?  No  I 
It  is  incompatible  with  the  repose  of  Europe  and 
the  honor   of   my   crown."     Once   more   Napoleon 


1805  Dec.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  141 

was  master  of  Europe,  with  none  to  dispute  hia 
sway  but  England. 

The  year  1805  was  a  sad  one  for  Germany  in  other 
respects.  During  this  year  the  poet  Friedrich  Schil-  ogj^tijo, 
ler  died  at  Weimar  in  his  forty-fifth  year.  He  was^^'^'"®'' 
then  in  the  midst  of  a  Eussian  historical  play,  "De- 
metrius." Schiller  was  one  of  the  brightest  stars 
of  German  literature.  In  his  convictions  he  waa 
pre-eminently  an  idealist  like  Shelley,  and,  like  him, 
he  was  a  master  of  lyric  expression;  and  this  at  a 
time  when  the  German  language  was  still  in  an 
uncouth  and  crude  stage.  As  a  historian,  unlike 
most  German  scholars,  he  was  distinguished  rather 
by  his  command  of  facile  and  lucid  prose  than  by 
the  thoroughness  of  his  research.  Idealist  that 
he  was,  his  philosophical  studies  made  him  a  clear 
thinker.  Thus,  as  early  as  1794,  he  gave  this  fore- 
cast of  the  main  results  of  the  French  Eevolution, 
then  at  its  height:  "The  French  Republic  will  pass 
away  as  suddenly  as  it  arose.  It  will  pass  into  an- 
archy, and  this  will  end  in  submission  to  a  despot,  forecalt^oi 

Napoleon 

who  will  extend  his  sway  over  the  greater  part  of 
Europe."  Schiller  began  his  literary  career  as  a 
revolutionary.  While  serving  as  a  regimental  sur- 
geon in  Stuttgart,  he  wrote  "The  Robbers,"  a  wild, 
rhapsodical  play,  the  performance  of  which  created 
a  tempest  in  a  teapot.  Schiller  was  called  to  ac- 
count for  it  and  left  Stuttgart  as  a  fugitive.  The 
next  few  years  were  spent  at  Mannheim,  Leipsic 
and  Dresden  in  great  poverty.  With  the  aid  of  his 
old  friend,  Koerner,  Schiller  found  his  way  at  last 
to  Weimar,  where  he  was  kindly  received.     Goethe 


142  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Dec.  1805 

secured  for  him  an  appointment  as  professor  of 
history  at  the  University  of  Jena,  a  post  which 
Schiller  held  until  his  death.  In  his  capacity  of 
historian  he  wrote  *'A  History  of  the  Revolt  of  the 
Netherlands"  and  an  elaborate  *' History  of  the 
Thirty  Years'  War,"  which  is  still  a  standard. 
His  last     From  1795   to  1800  the   poet  wrote  his  finest  bal- 

Works  '■ 

lads  and  his  most  finished  drama,  the  trilogy  of 
*' Wallenstein."  In  the  following  years,  spent 
mostly  at  Weimar,  he  produced  "Mary  Stuart," 
*'The  Maid  of  Orleans,"  "The  Bride  of  Messina," 
and  "William  Tell,"  the  last  and  most  successful 
of  his  plays. 


1806  Jan.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  143 


1806 

ON  January  1  of  this  year  the  reigning  princes 
of  Bavaria  and  Wurtemberg  assumed  the 
royal  crown.  From  Schoenbrunn  in  Aus- 
tria Napoleon  dictated  a  decree  deposing  the  Bour-  House  of 
bon  family  in  Italy:  "La  Dynastie  de  Naples  ad&throned 
cesse  de  regner."  The  Queen  of  Naples  fled  to 
Palermo  in  Sicily,  where  her  court  was  protected 
by  the  guns  of  British  cruisers. 

In  England  the  opponents  of  the  government 
opened  the  year  by  asking  for  an  inquiry  into  the 
causes  of  the  disasters  to  the  British  policy  abroad 
"so  far  as  they  were  connected  with  the  conduct  of 
the  Ministry."  The  motion,  though  read  in  both 
Houses  of  Parliament,  was  never  bx  ought  to  a  vote, 
owing  to  the  severe  illness  into  which  the  Prime  Min- 
ister had  fallen  after  the  disaster  at  Austerlitz.  On 
January  23,  William  Pitt  died  in  the  forty-seventh  Death  of 
year  of  his  life.  The  death  of  Nelson,  with  the  dis- 
asters of  Ulm  and  Austerlitz,  followiog  so  closely 
upon  one  another,  were  too  much  for  Pitt's  failing 
health.  The  dying  statesman's  exhortation  to  Em- 
peror Francis,  written  after  the  surrender  of  Ulm, 
is  one  of  the  most  soul-stirring  appeals  to  be  found 
in  English  diplomatic  correspondence.  "Auster- 
litz killed  Pitt,"   wrote  Wilberforce  in  his  diary. 


144  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Jan.  1808 

*'  'Roll  up  that  map,'  he  said  in  a  hollow  voice, 
as  he  pointed  to  a  map  of  Europe  which  hung 
upon  the  wall.  'It  will  be  useless  for  ten  years  to 
come.'  "  "While  in  the  stupor  of  death  Pitt  rallied 
for  a  last  time.  Those  that  bent  over  him  caught 
a  faint  murmur:  "My  country!  How  I  leave  my 
country!"  The  bearer  of  a  great  name,  he  had 
Younger  Hiadc  it  cvcu  moro  illustrious.  During  his  lifetime 
acbilve-     he  exerted  a  powerful  influence  over  the  destinies  of 

cnents 

his  country  and  of  Europe.  For  twenty-three  years 
he  presided  over  the  councils  of  Great  Britain.  He 
showed  his  chief  ability  in  the  management  of  the 
internal  affairs  of  his  country,  particularly  in 
the  regulation  of  its  finances.  But  for  his  reso- 
lute creation  of  a  national  sinking  fund  based  on 
the  increment  of  compound  interest,  England  would 
have  been  unequal  to  the  financial  burdens  of  her 
gigantic  war  against  tbe  power  of  Napoleon.  The 
union  of  Ireland  to  England  was  Pitt's  crowning 
stroke.  In  external  affairs  he  was  singularly  unfor- 
tunate. His  ^lunt  letters  to  Napoleon  are  a  case  in 
point.  Almost  all  his  political  reverses  came  from 
that  source.  Had  he  lived,  his  recent  disastrous 
foreign  policy  would  probably  have  foundered  his 
administration  before  the  close  of  Parliament.  Lord 
Grenville,  who  succeeded  Pitt  in  office,  took  Mr. 
Fox  into  his  cabinet  to  act  as  Secretary  of  Foreign 
Affairs.  For  the  moment  Mr.  Fox  had  to  follow  in 
the  footsteps  of  his  predecessor.  After  Pitt's  death, 
Parliament  voted  a  sum  of  £40,000  to  pay  the  dead 
statesman's  debts,  and  decreed  that  he  should  be 
buried  by  the  nation  in  Westminster  Abbey.     The 


1806  Feb.  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  145 

City  of  London  voted  to  erect  a  public  monument 
to  Fitt  at  Guildhall. 

On  the  same  day,  the  French  Senate  decreed  that 
a  public  monument  should  be  erected  to  "Napo- 
leon le  Grrand."  The  young  Italian  sculptor  Canova 
was  intrusted  with  this  task.  A  few  days  later  the 
last  remnants  of  the  French  navy  under  Leiss^gues 
were  destroyed  in  the  bay  of  San  Domingo  by  aoff^sin*^*^ 
British  squadron,  under  the  command  of  Admiral  °'""*^ 
Duckworth.  After  a  fierce  sea-fight,  lasting  sev- 
eral hours,  two  French  ships  were  blown  up  and 
three  surrendered.  Next,  the  French  Vice- Admiral  navli 
Liuois,  returning  from  India,  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  British  with  one  ship  of  the  line  and  one  frigate. 
The  "Cannonni^re,"  another  French  ship  of  the  line, 
was  captured  olf  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  French  paralysed 
commercial  shipping  was  annihilated.  Henceforth 
Napoleon  had  only  his  land  forces  to  count  on.  In 
the  first  week  of  February  he  sent  an  army  of  in- 
vasion to  Naples  under  Massena,  and  his  brother 
Joseph  was  made  King  of  the  Two  Sicilies.  Na- 
poleon announced  it  at  the  opening  session  of  the 
Corps  Legislatif.  His  address  contained  the  follow- 
ing characteristic  sentences: 

*'I  have  avenged  the  rights  of  the  weaker  States. 
The  royal  House  of  Naples  has  lost  its  crown  for- 
ever. Italy  from  end  to  end  now  forms  a  part  of 
our  great  empire.  Frenchmen,  I  have  not  been 
deceived  in  my  hopes.  Your  love  more  than  the 
acquisHion  of  rich  territories  is  my  chief  glory. 
Henceforth  nothing  shall  be  done  that  is  not  es- 
sential to  guarantee  the  glory  and  safety  of  mj 
peoples." 

XlXth  Century— Vol.  1—7 


146  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  Feb.  1808 

N^apoieoa's  Simultaneously  with  this,  Joseph  Bonaparte,  very 
K^s^*^  much  against  his  will,  was  proclaimed  King  of  Na- 
ples and  Sicily.  Napoleon's  other  brothers,  Louis 
and  Jerome,  were  likewise  disposed  of.  Louis,  in 
the  face  of  his  protest,  was  selected  for  the  throne 
of  Holland.  "If  you  have  not  been  consulted  in 
this  affair,"  wrote  Napoleon  to  his  brother,  "it  was 
because  a  subject  cannot  but  obey."  Jerome, 
who  had  married  a  Miss  Patterson  of  Baltimore, 
was  ordered  to  give  up  his  wife  and  child  to  marry 
a  princess  of  Wurtemberg,  with  whom  to  reign  over 
the  projected  kingdom  of  Westphalia.  When  Pope 
threatened  Pi '^s  VII.  demurred  to  this  divorce,  Napoleon  wrote 
brusquely:  "Your  Holiness  is  sovereign  of  Rome, 
but  I  am  her  Emperor.  .  .  I  am  accountable  to 
God,  who  has  chosen  my  arm  to  re-establish  relig- 
ion. .  .  It  is  not  by  sleeping  that  I  have  reorgan- 
ized religion  in  France  in  such  a  manner  that  there 
is  no  other  country  in  which  it  is  productive  of  so 
much  good,  or  where  it  is  so  much  respected."  To 
his  cousin,  Cardinal  Fesch,  Napoleon  wrote:  "I  do 
not  intend  the  court  of  Rome  to  mix  longer  in  poli- 
tics; I  shall  inform  the  Pope  in  a  very  few  words. 
If  he  does  not  acquiesce,  I  shall  reduce  him  to 
the  same  condition  in  which  he  was  before  Charle- 
magne." Napoleon's  stepson,  Eugene  Beauharnais, 
married  Princess  Augusta  of  Buvaria  and  was  made 
Prince  of  Upper  Italy,  while  her  former  betrothed 
was  united  by  force  to  Stephanie  de  Beauharnais, 
Napoleon's  mistress.  To  this  system  of  grand  fiefs 
Napoleon's  Napolcou  added  a  number  of  lesser  sovereignties 
rewarded    ^j^^^j)^  ]^q  distributed  at  will  among  his  relatives  and 


1806  Feb.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  147 

favorites.  His  sister  Elise  received  Lucca  and  Piom- 
bino;  Pauline  Bonaparte  obtained  the  Duchy  of 
Guastalla;  Marshal  Berthier  got  the  Principality  of 
Neufchatel;  Murat  was  made  Grandduke  of  Cloves- 
Berg;  Lebrun  became  Duke  of  Piacenza;  Berna- 
dotte  received  Ponte-Oorvo,  and  Talleyrand,  the 
former  bishop,  became  Prince  of  Benevento.  The 
Venetian  States  alone  formed  twelve  additional  fiefs. 

Napoleon's  most  gifted  brother,  Lucien,  alone 
held  out.  He  had  angered  his  brother  by  marry- 
ing Madame  Jouberteau,  a  lively  lady  of  Paris,  at 
a  time  that  Napoleon  wished  him  to  marry  the 
Queen  of  Etruria.  "I  wish  to  place  all  my  brothers 
on  thrones,"  wrote  Napoleon,  "yet  you,  who  ought 
to  second  my  wishes,  whom  I  love,  your  only 
delight  consists  in  running  after  this  woman." 
Several  attempts  at  reconciliation  failed.  Finally, 
when  one  of  Napoleon's  go-betweens  proposed  tc 
Lucien  to  make  peace  with  his  brother  by  putting  ^^^^^^ 
away  his  wife  "at  least  for  a  time,"  Lucien  ended  defiant''^'* 
all  negotiations  in  a  letter  which  ended  with  the 
famous  line:  "I  glory,  sir,  in  being  ignorant  of 
the  language  which  you  employ."  After  this  Lu- 
cien was  expatriated. 

During  the  war  of  1805  the  internal  affairs  of 
France  were  going  from  bad  to  worse.  The  annual 
expenses  for  the  year  1805,  according  to  Gaudin's 
reports,  were  894,000,000  francs.  On  starting  for 
the  front  of  war.  Napoleon  remarked  to  bis  new 
minister,  Mollien:  "Our  finances  are  in  a  bad  state. 

French 

It  is  not  here  that  I  can  restore  them  to  order. ' '  refwm? 
After  the   battle   of    Austerlitz  all   this  changed. 


148  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Spring  180« 

The  enormous  French  army  was  quartered  outside 
of  France  at  the  expense  of  other  countries.  From 
the  contributioDS  levied  on  Austria  and  Southern 
Germany  a  "Caisse  militaire"  was  formed  and  in- 
trusted to  Mollien  for  the  especial  benefit  of  the 
soldiers  of  the  empire.  Triumphal  arches  to  the 
army  were  erected  at  the  Carrousel  and  the  Etoile; 
the  bridge  of  Austerlitz  was  laid  across  the  Seme, 
and  columns  were  raised,  cast  from  the  bronze  of 
the  enemy's  cannons.  "The  belles-lettres  and  arts 
are  about  to  take  a  soaring  flight,"  wrote  JSapoleon, 
as  he  issued  decrees  for  the  completion  of  the  mu- 
seum of  the  Louvre,  the  restoration  of  the  Pantheon 
to  religious  worship,  and  the  construction  of  a 
"Tribunal  of  Commerce"  on  the  site  of  the  Church 
other  in-    of  La  Madeleine.     New  streets  were  opened,  among 

ternal  re- 

forms  them  the  handsome  Eue  Rivoli  and  Rue  de  la  Paix. 
The  foundation  of  the  new  University  of  France 
was  postponed  until  later.  The  most  lasting  of  all 
these  home  measures  was  the  great  code  of  civil 
procedure.  It  was  promulgated  a  few  days  after  the 
death  of  Tronchet,  the  celebrated  legal  defender  of 
Louis  XVI.,  who  had  helped  to  frame  the  new  code. 
It  went  into  effect  by  the  end  of  the  year. 

The  Code       The   "Codc   Napolcou,"    as   it    has   come   to   be 

Napoleon 

called,  was  so  admirably  constructed  that  it  soon 
became  the  organic  law  of  the  land.  It  swept  away 
the  last  remnants  of  feudalism  and  established  the 
equality  of  all  French  citizens  before  the  law. 
The  freedom  of  divorce,  one  of  the  innovations 
of  the  French  Revolution,  was  abolished,  and  in  its 
place  came  a  strict  legal  recognition  of  the  responsi- 


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(149) 


160  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  Spring  180« 

bilities  of  the  marriage  tie  and  of  all  family  rela- 
tions. Laws  for  the  dower  of  daughters  and  the 
distribution  of  property  among  all  the  members 
of  the  family  were  established.  These  laws,  while 
protecting  the  property  rights  of  women  and  chil- 
dren, gave  but  inadequate  recognition  to  the  general 
rights  of  woman.  This  has  been  declared  one  of  the 
chief  defects  of  the  Code,  together  with  those  laws 
which,  by  rendering  marriage  difficult,  are  believed 
to  have  brought  about  the  ultimate  depopulation  of 
France.  Another  grave  defect  in  the  Code,  which 
has  been  attributed  partly  to  the  influence  of  Napo- 
leon, partly  to  the  fact  that  the  f ramers  of  the  Code 
understood  law  better  than  political  economy,  are 
the  loose  laws  concerning  workingmen's  associa- 
tions and  industrial  combinations  that  were  destined 
to  play  such  an  important  part  in  France  later  in 
the  century. 
British  After  the  partial  accomplishment  of  these  reforms 

Naval  Em-  -^  '^ 

bargo  ^1;  tiome,  Napoleon's  attention  was  drawn  once  more 
beyond  the  borders  of  France.  Prussia's  announce- 
ment of  her  annexation  of  Hanover,  and  the  em- 
bargo laid  upon  British  ships  in  the  North  Sea, 
as  stipulated  in  the  treaty  of  Schoenbrunn,  was 
counteracted  by  Great  Britain's  embargo  on  all 
Prussian  shipping.  During  the  next  few  weeks, 
nearly  four  hundred  Prussian  ships  were  taken  by 
the  British,  but  the  right  of  confiscation  was  not 
as  yet  enforced  in  their  case.  Not  only  Prussian 
and  French  shipping  was  made  to  suffer  by  British 
cruisers,  but  also  that  of  America.  A  formal  pro- 
test was  addressed  to  Great  Britain  by  President 


1806  Spring  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  151 

Jeiferson,     The  main  points  of  this  State  paper  are 
thus  summed  up  in  the  British  Annual  Register  for 

IniDrcss- 

1806:  "Tiie  forcible  impressment  of  American  sea- ment  of 

American 

men  into  the  British  navy,  so  the  United  States  ^'^''"'■^ 
contended,  was  a  practice  derogatory  to  the  honor 
of  their  flag  and  inconsistent  with  their  rights  as  an 
independent  nation.  While  it  lasted,  there  could 
be  no  real  friendship  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States.  So  intolerable  an  abuse  could  not 
be  endured  by  an  independent  State  unless  from 
inability  to  resist  the  injury."  Great  Britain  did 
not  heed  the  protest.  On  April  25  the  feeling  be- 
tween the  two  countries  was  aggravated  by  the 
killing  of  an  American  seaman  named  Pierce,  byander'^®" 
a  stray  shot  from  the  British  cruiser  "Leander, " 
within  sight  of  New  York.  The  captain  of  the 
"Leander"  was  permitted  to  go  unpunished.  Presi- 
dent Jefferson  issued  a  proclamation  excluding  the 
"Leander"  and  her  two  convoys  from  all  harbors 
of  the  United  States.  In  New  York  the  citizens 
held  an  indignation  meeting  at  the  Tontine  coffee 
house,  and  had  the  captain  of  the  "Leander"  in- 
dicted for  murder.  The  New  York  rabble  clamored 
for  war.  Yet  war  with  England  was  not  to  be 
lightly  undertaken.  As  John  Randolph  said  in  one 
of  his  speeches  at  the  time:  "I  will  never  consent 
to  go  to  war  for  that  which  I  cannot  protect.  I 
deem  it  no  sacrifice  of  dignity  to  say  to  the  Levia- 
than of  the  deep:  'We  are  unable  to  contend  with 
you  in  your  own  element,  but  if  you  come  within 
our  actual  limits,  we  shall  shed  our  last  drop  of 
blood   in   their  defence.'  "      Finally  a   treaty   was 


152  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Spring  1808 

Attempts   draughted  between  Lords  Hollaad  and  Auckland  on 

at  adjust-  ^ 

™®°'  one  side  and  Messrs.  Monroe  and  Pinckney  on  the 
other,  in  which  an  attempt  was  made  to  regulate 
these  abuses.  But  President  JefEerson,  finding 
England's  concessions  inadequate,  withheld  his 
ratification. 

About  the  same  time  that  the  British  squadron 
before  Ivlew  York  was  excluded  from  American 
ports  of  entry,  the  United  States  stopped  all  trade 
with  Hayti.  Though  this  was  done  at  the  bid  of 
Napoleon,  whose  ministers  had  written  that  "Com- 

San  Do-  '^ 

mitigoout-  nmerce  with  San  Domingo  must  not  continue," 
the  true  motive  for  this  unusual  measure  lay  in  the 
Southern  slave-holders'  execration  of  the  successful 
revolt  of  the  negroes  in  San  Domingo.  The  latest 
outrage  in  that  quarter  was  a  massacre  of  all  the 
remaining  French  colonists  at  Cape  Haytien,  per- 
petrated under  the  orders  of  Dessalines.  In  the 
end  the  so-called  Emperor  was  himself  assassinated. 
Early  in  the  year  the  American  Secretary  of 
State,  Madison,  had  been  seriously  embarrassed  by 
an  abortive  filibustering  expedition  against  Spain. 
The  moving  spirit  of  this  enterprise  was  one  Fran- 
cesco de  Miranda,  a  Spanish  revolutionist,  who  had 
gained  personal  access  to  Madison.  Another  Ameri- 
can statesman  was  more  deeply  interested  in  Miran- 

bitioua       da's  plots;  this  was  Aaron  Burr.     Finding  Miranda 

projects 

too  impetuous,  Burr  dropped  him  and  entered  into 
a  project  with  the  British  Minister  in  America  and 
others  to  separate  the  Western  and  Atlantic  States 
and  seize  Spanish  territory  in  Florida  and  Mexico 
wherewith  to  form  a  new  empire  of  the  South,     In 


1806  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  153 

pursuance  of  this  plan,  Burr  made  a  hurried  trip 
through  the  southwest,  and  tried  to  gain  adherents 
to  his  plans.  From  Great  Britain  Burr  demanded 
a  promise  of  naval  aid  and  a  credit  for  £110,000. 
Burr  and  his  fellow  conspirators  talked  so  freely 
that  the  plan  became  known  to  the  Spaniards. 
Marquis  Yrujo,  the  Spanish  Minister,  informed  his 
government  of  all  the  main  details  of  the  plot,  which 
he  characterized  as  "almost  insane."  Burr's  wild 
scheme  at  this  time  was  to  introduce  his  fellow  con- 
spirators   into  Washington  and   there  to  seize  the  cai  con- 

i  "  spiracy 

President,  Vice-President  and  president  of  the  Sen- 
ate, together  with  the  public  funds  and  Capitol 
defences.  With  this  end  in  view.  Burr  made  over- 
tures to  General  Wilkinson,  chief  commander  of  the 
American  army.  Commodore  Truxtun,  and  to  Gen- 
eral Eaton,  the  hero  of  Derne.  Andrew  Jackson 
was  likewise  approached.  President  Jefferson,  when 
apprised  of  the  plot,  showed  himself  inclined  to 
give  Burr  liberal  leeway.  By  midsummer,  in  1806, 
Burr  had  accomplished  all  that  could  be  done  in 
the  East  and  betook  himself  westward.  In  Ohio, 
Burr  induced  Blennerhassett,  an  Irish  gentleman  of 
means,  to  throw  his  fortunes  in  with  him.  Blenner- 
hassett started  to  raise  troops  and  armaments  for 
the  enterprise  on  his  island  estate.  Meanwhile  the 
Spanish  Minister  had  written  to  the  governors  of 
the  Spanish  Floridas  and  to  the  Viceroy  of  Mexico 
to  keep  their  eyes  on  Burr.  In  Ohio  and  Kentucky 
Burr's  project  for  disunion  aroused  intense  opposi- 
tion. Even  one  of  Blennerhassett's  servants  frankly 
said  to  Burr:   "If  you  come  up  our  way  the  people 


154  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Autumn  180« 

Bu'rTiflied  ^^^^  shoot  jou!"  Firiallj  the  district-attorney  of 
to  court  Ohio  made  formal  charges  against  the  conspirators. 
Burr  appeared  in  court  seconded  by  young  Henry 
Clay  and  was  acquitted.  At  last  President  Jefferson 
took  action.  On  October  22,  he  ordered  gunboats  to 
proceed  as  far  as  Fort  Adams  and  called  for  Burr's 
arrest  upon  the  commission  of  any  overt  act.  His 
letter  began  in  this  wise:  "During  the  last  session 
of  Congress,  Colonel  Burr,  who  was  here,  finding 
no  hope  of  being  employed  in  any  department  of 
the  government,  entered  into  a  scheme  to  separate 
the  Western  from  the  Atlantic  States  and  to  erect 
the  former  into  an  independent  confederacy."  Burr 
was  again  arraigned  in  court,  Henry  Clay  pledged 
Aaron  Burr  ^^^  ^^°  houor  on  his  fricud's  innocence,  and  Burr 
acquiLte  ^^^  once  more  triumphantly  acquitted  by  a  grand 
jury.  A  public  ball  was  given  in  his  honor.  Then 
President  Jefferson  issued  a  proclamation  against 
"sundry  persons  conspiring  against  Spain,"  and 
ordered  them  and  all  their  property  to  be  seized. 
The  expedition  at  Blennerhassett's  island  fled  down 
the  river.  Burr  escaped  from  Nashville  and  floated 
down  the  Mississippi  only  to  surrender  in  the  end. 

While   the   South   was   still    in   a  turmoil    over 
Burr's  enterprise,  a  peaceful  mission,  far  more  last- 
ing in  its  effects,  had  just  been  accomplished.     In 
Lewis  and  September,   Lewis  and  Clarke  had   returned   from 
Kxpior^     a  trip  of  exploration  into  the  new  western  territory 

tiOD 

of  the  United  States  apon  which  President  Jefferson 
had  sent  them.  They  had  been  absent  nearly  two 
and  a  half  years,  and  had  travelled  over  eight  thou- 
sand miles  in   boats,   on   horseback   and   on   foot. 


1806  Summer  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  155 

They  had  worked  their  way  up  the  Missouri  until 
they  reached  the  gates  of  the  Rocky  Mountains 
near  the  present  city  of  Helena  in  Montana. 
Thence  they  floated  down  the  Oregon  River  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean.  Their  full  report  of  their  travels 
was  a  revelation  of  the  boundless  possibilities  of 
the  newly  acquired  territory  of  Western  North 
America. 

In  the  meantime,  the  war  between  England  and 
France  was  lagging  on  in  a  half-hearted  fashion. 
Englishmen  at  home  were  too  much  occupied  with 
the  impeachment  proceedings  against  Lord  Melville  vnieim-' 

1  111-1-  ■  1  '1-     Peaclied 

on  charges  that  he  had  misappropriated  public 
funds  to  take  very  active  interest  in  matters  abroad. 
Finally  Lord  Melville  was  acquitted.  Mr.  Fox  was 
inclined  to  enter  into  more  peaceful  relations  with 
Napoleon.  Thus  he  sent  word  to  the  French  Em- 
peror of  a  plot  for  Napoleon's  assassination  that 
had  been  unfolded  to  him.  Talleyrand  returned  the 
compliment  with  a  graciously  worded  message  of 
appreciation.  This  exchange  of  courtesies  presently  ppaol** 
led  to  direct  parleys  on  the  subject  of  peace.  They  °''®'"'^"''®* 
were  carried  on  through  Lord  Yarmouth,  one  of 
the  many  British  travellers  detained  in  France 
at  the  outbreak  of  hostilities.  Talleyrand,  speak- 
ing for  Napoleon,  expressed  his  readiness  to  give 
up  Sicily.  While  the  parleys  lasted  peace  had  been 
made  to  appear  even  more  desirable  to  Napoleon 
by  a  bloody  defeat  inflicted  upon  the  French  under 
General  Regnier  by  Sir  John  Stuart,  at  St.  Euphe-  ^atue  of 
mia  or  Maida,  in  Calabria.  The  battle  was  fought 
on  July  6,  between  7,000  Frenchmen  on  one  side 


156  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Summer  1806 

and  4,800  Englishmen  on  the  other.  Both  sidea 
advanced  to  the  attack  with  fixed  bayonets,  but  at 
the  first  shock  of  meeting  the  French  vanguard 
broke  and  their  whole  force  was  thrown  into  dis- 
order. The  French  lost  4,000  men  in  the  rout, 
while  the  English  had  only  45  men  killed  and  282 
Revoitof    wounded.     All  Calabria  rose  in  revolt  against  the 

Calabria  ° 

French,  and  the  province  was  drenched  with  blood, 
until  the  last  of  the  French  garrisons  had  been 
driven  from  the  country.  The  capture  of  Graeta  by 
Massena  more  than  counterbalanced  these  reverses. 
Fall  of       The  surrender  of  Graeta,  after  its  severe  siege  under 

Gaeta 

the  Prince  of  Hesse,  cut  off  communications  with 
the  disaffected  northern  provinces  of  the  kingdom 
of  Naples.  Some  16,000  of  the  besieging  army  were 
set  at  liberty  to  act  against  the  Calabrians.  With 
their  help,  Calabria  was  finally  reduced  to  subjec- 
tion, but  for  many  months  that  part  of  Italy  was 
plunged  into  a  bloody  bandit  war.  Hordes  of 
galley  slaves  and  convicts  under  the  notorious  Fra 
Diavolo  and  Pane  di  Grrande  kept  up  a  stubborn 
struggle.  It  was  waged  on  both  sides  with  a  feroc- 
ity that  recalled  the  horrors  of  San  Domingo. 

Napoleon's  covert  offer  to  cede  Sicily  to  England 
was  communicated  to  the  reigning  house  of  Spain, 
the  rightful  owners  of  that  province.  Spain  took 
alarm  the  more  as  the  enmity  of  England  had  been 
brought  home  to  her  by  the  recent  temporary  cap- 
British       ture  of  her  South  American  colony  of  Buenos  Ayres 

c;iptuie 

by  an  English  fleet  that  had  been  sent  to  seize  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  by  the  appearance  of  a 
formidable  British  squadron  under  Lord  St.  Vincent 


Calabrian 
horrors 


Buenos 
Ayres 


1806  Summer  NINETEENTH     HENTURY  157 

off  Lisbon.     Godoy,   the  Spanish  Prime  Minister, 
went  to  England  to  negotiate  a  secret  treaty. 

The  Emperor  of  Russia,  whose  troops  had  seized 
the  moath  of  the  Cattaro  when  the  French  were 
about  to  occupy  it,  influenced  by  other  counsels, 
now  decided  to  withdraw  his  forces.     In  pursuance  Russian 

peace 

of  this  new  policy  he  sent  Count  D'Ouvril  to  Paris  overtures 
as  a  peace  commissioner.  The  conclusion  of  the 
preliminaries  of  the  peace  with  Russia,  on  August 
15,  completely  changed  the  tenor  of  Napoleon's 
negotiations  with  Fox.  He  would  no  longer  hear 
of  yielding  Sicily,  not  even  to  the  Spanish  Bour- 
bons. Instead  of  that  he  offered  to  return  Hanover 
to  King  George  of  England.  This  offer  came  upon 
the  heels  of  Napoleon's  formal  announcement  of  the  confeder*. 
formation  of  his  new  Confederacy  of  the  Rhine.  Rhine 
By  the  terms  of  this  confederacy,  as  arranged  in 
July,  fourteen  German  princes  seceded  from  the 
German  Empire  and  entered  into  a  league  with 
France.  Besides  the  three  sovereigns  of  Bavaria, 
Wurtemberg  and  Baden,  the  new  confederation  in- 
cluded the  new  Prince  Arch-Chancellor  of  Dalberg, 
the  Elector  of  Hesse-Darmstadt,  the  Duke  of  Nas- 
sau, the  French  Grandduke  of  Berg,  the  Prince  of 
Salm-Salm  and  others.  They  entered  into  a  deisn- 
sive  and  offensive  alliance  with  France  in  perpetuity 
and  agreed  to  furnish  an  army  of  63,000  men  to  be 
mcorporated  into  the  French  army  of  200,000  still 
standing  in  Southern  Germany.  Within  a  week 
after  this  announcement,  Francis  II.  of  Austria, 
who  had  been  despoiled  of  all  his  German  fiefs, 
relinquished    his   vain  title   of   German   Emperor, 


158 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


Summer  1800 


End  of 
Holy  Elo- 
maa  Em- 
pire 


Prussia 

takes 

alarm 


The  Holy  Roman  Empire,  so-called,  was  dissolved. 
The  French  Minister  informed  the  members  of  the 
ancient  German  Diet  that  the  Emperor,  his  master, 
no  longer  recognized  the  Germanic  constitution, 
though  he  recognized  the  sovereignty  of  each  of 
the  German  princes  considered  individually.  The 
old  town  of  Regensburg,  where  the  Diet  met,  was 
ceded  to  Bavaria.  The  German  princes  had  been 
induced  to  join  hands  with  Napoleon,  partly  through 
fear  and  partly  by  the  new  accessions  to  their  realms, 
which  Napoleon  consented  to  grant  them. 

The  announcement  of  this  new  powerful  league 
caused  consternation  among  those  German  States 
that  had  not  been  included  in  it — most  of  all  at 
Berlin.  The  King  of  Prussia  had  reason  to  be 
alarmed.  In  the  north,  the  King  of  Denmark 
seized  this  opportunity  to  declare  "Holstein  for- 
ever separated  from  the  German  Empire,"  and  an- 
nexed it  to  Denmark.  More  alarming  still  were  the 
significant  manoeuvres  of  the  French  army  evacu- 
ating Austria.  When  the  French  columns  left  Bo- 
hemia and  Moravia,  they  did  so  in  oblique  marches 
that  brought  them  between  the  Palatinate  and  the 
banks  of  the  Weser.  This  placed  General  Augereau, 
with  a  French  reserve  corps,  at  Frankfort,  a  conven- 
ient central  position.  An  official  betrayal  of  Napo- 
leon's offer  of  Hanover  to  England  brought  matters 
to  a  point.  Prussia  began  to  mobilize  her  army. 
Russia,  taking  alarm  at  the  French  preparations 
for  a  northward  move,  on  August  15  broke  off  all 
proposals  for  peace.  England,  through  her  ambas- 
sador at  Berlin,  confirmed  the  report  of  Napoleon's 


i806Au-ust  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  169 

Hanoverian  bargain.  This  put  an  end  to  all  peace 
negotiations  between  Talleyrand  and  Fox.  It  was 
the  last  stroke  in  Fox's  career.  He  died  on  Septera-  Fox 
ber  13.  Thus,  within  a  few  months  after  his  illus- 
trious rival,  another  of  the  most  eminent  statesmen 
of  England  passed  away.  The  most  prominent 
feature  of  this  great  man's  character  was  his  love 
of  liberty  and  hatred  of  oppression. 

Napoleon  ascribed  England's  change  of  policy 
to  the  death  of  Fox.  To  anticipate  the  inevitable 
coalition  forming  against  him,  Napoleon  issued  an 
ultimatum  to  Prussia.  He  refused  to  evacuate  Ger-  timatum'to 
many  unless  Prussia  agreed  to  put  a  stop  to  the 
mobilization  of  her  array.  Failing  to  receive  a  sat- 
isfactory reply  by  October  8,  he  threatened  immedi- 
ate hostilities.  In  Germany  public  opinion,  long 
pent  up,  burst  forth  in  great  violence  against  Napo- 
leon. His  destruction  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire 
had  wounded  German  patriotic  sensibilities.  Popu- 
lar murmurs  arose  and  patriotic  pamphlets  against 
the  French  appeared  on  all  sides.  One  of  these, 
entitled  "Germany  in  the  Depths  of  Degradation," 
the  work  of  Genz,  was  published  by  Palm,  a  book- 
seller of  Nuremberg.  On  August  6,  Napoleon 
wrote  to  Berthier:  "My  cousin,  you  have,  I  pre- 
sume, arrested  the  booksellers  of  Augsburg  and 
Nuremberg.  I  intend  them  to  be  brought  before 
a  military  commission  and  shot  within  twenty-four 
hours."      In  obedience  to  these  instructions  Palm Executi«n 

of  Palm 

was  at  once  arrested  and  shot.  The  unfortunate 
bookseller  met  death  with  a  simple  fortitude  that 
made  him  a  popular  martyr  among  his  countrymen. 


160 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE 


Sept.  180» 


^Ber^n'*^  Id  German  song  and  story  public  feeling  against  the 
French  rose  high.  In  Berlin  the  war  party,  headed 
by  Queen  Louise,  got  the  upper  hand.  The  officers 
of  the  guards  whetted  their  swords  on  the  stone 
steps  of  the  French  embassy.  Philosophical  writers 
like  Fichte  and  popular  poets  like  Arndt  stirred 
up  the  people  by  their  appeals  to  patriotism.  The 
Prussian  regular  army,  proud  of  its  achievements 
under  Frederick  the  Great,  burned  to  prove  its  met- 
tle against  the  foreign  invaders.  Only  Freder- 
ick William  III.,  the  King  of  Prussia,  hesitated. 
While  he  took  council  with  his  cautious  Cabinet, 

Napoleon    Napolcon    hurricd   to   Mainz   at  the  rate  of   sixty 

goes  to  the         ^  *' 

front  miles  a  day.  From  there  he  flew  to  the  front  at 
Carlsruhe. 

The  hostile  forces  stood  facing  each  other  in 
central  Germany.  The  Prussian  army  numbered 
130,000  men,  under  the  command  of  the  aged  Duke 
of  Brunswick,  with  a  staff  of  inexperienced  princes 
and  old  officers  like  Mollendorf,  grown  gray  in  ser- 
vice. The  soldiers  were  armed  and  drilled  accord- 
ing to  the  precepts  in  vogue  at  the  time  of  Freder- 
ick the  Great.  They  were  well  disciplined,  but  had 
no  other  incentive  to  drive  them  on  but  brutal  cor- 
poral punishment.  Promotion  from  the  ranks  was 
unheard  of.  All  the  officers'  commissions  were  held 
by  the  nobles.  The  French  army,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  commanded  by  youthful  officers  through- 
out. Every  man  in  the  ranks  was  made  to  feel  that 
he  carried  a  marshal's  baton  in  his  knapsack.  Na- 
poleon had  taken  pains  to  eqaip  all  the  branches 
of  the  service  with  the  most  modern  arms  and  ac- 


Conserva- 
tism  of 
Prussian 
army 


1806  Oct.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  161 

coutrements.     Under  the  stress  of  constant  active  ^'■^"ch 

artny  up- 

service  in  the  field,  the  whole  French  army  had  ^*^'^'''^® 
been  reorganized  from  top  to  bottom.  Everything 
down  to  ordinary  tactics  had  been  brought  up  to 
date.  In  strategy,  Napoleon  and  his  marshals  could 
be  presumed  to  be  immeasurably  superior  to  their 
antagonists.  To  the  French  leaders  advancing  from 
campaign  to  campaign  the  art  of  war  had  become 
almost  second  nature.  Where  their  opponents  de- 
liberated, they  acted.  All  were  firm  believers  in 
Napoleon's  maxim:  "The  strength  of  an  army, 
like  the  power  in  mechanics,  is  estimated  by  mul- 
tiplying the  men  by  the  rapidity.  A  rapid  advance 
augments  the  morale  of  the  army,  and  increases  its 
means  of  victory.  Press  on!"  The  events  of"  the 
next  few  weeks  made  all  this  plain.    The  Prussians,  Prussian 

^  '  liilatoiy 

instead  of  taking  the  offensive,  as  was  counselled  *^^"*^ 
by  Scharnhorst,  one  of  their  few  young  generals, 
remained  in  their  original  position  on  the  banks  of 
the  Saale.  There  they  waited  for  the  commence- 
ment of  hostilities.  On  October  6,  three  days  be- 
fore the  expiration  of  the  period  set  in  Napoleon's 
ultimatum,  six  French  army  corps  advanced  simul- 
taneously into  Saxony.  They  marched  in  the  form 
of  a  large  square.  The  Prussian  general,  Bliicher, 
commanding  a  detached  corps  of  Prussians,  made 
haste  to  join  the  main  army.  The  Prussian  reserve, 
under  Prince  Eugene  of  Wurtemberg,  moved  too 
late  to  catch  up  in  time.  On  October  7,  Napoleon 
was  in  Amberg.  In  contemptuous  allusion  to  the 
blunders  of  the  old  Prussian  generals  he  said,  "They 
will  make  frightful  fools  of  themselves,  those  old 


162  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Oct.  18O6 

Napoleon's  wigg/ '     The   ncxt   day   the   French    army  made  a 

advance  j-^pid  advance  in  three  divisions.  By  their  move- 
ments the  left  wing  of  the  Prussians  was  exposed 
to  the  attack  of  the  whole  French  army.  While 
the  vanguard  of  the  Prussians  fell  back,  the  extreme 
end  of  the  left  flank  was  turned  by  the  French. 
Davoust,  with  33,000  men,  overran  the  Prussian 
stores  at  Hof,  and  made  for  their  base  of  supplies 
at  Naumburg. 

The  Prussians  met  the  concerted  French  advance 
by  advancing  their  central  army  corps  under  Prmce 

ing fight"  Hohenlohe.  On  October  9,  the  two  vanguards  came 
in  touch.  Marshal  Lannes,  by  forced  marches, 
brought  his  whole  army  corps  to  bear  down  upon 
the  firing  line.  Prince  Louis  Ferdinand  of  Prussia 
advanced  with  a  brigade  of  crack  cavalry  over  the 
bridge  at  Saalfeld.  His  troopers,  proud  of  their 
former  prowess,  ("were  eager  to  distinguish  them- 
selves. The  French  fell  upon  them  in  overwhelm- 
ing number.  The  Prussians  put  up  a  furious  fight, 
but  were  overthrown   and   utterly  routed.     Prince 

Death  or    Louis  Ferdinand  was  killed  in  action.     With  him 

Louis  Fer- 

dmand  fg^j  gj^.  hundred  of  his  troopers.  "Diable!  That 
will  make  an  impression  upon  them!"  said  Lannes, 
when  they  showed  him  the  dead  prince,  riddled 
■with  bullets. 

As  soon  as  Napoleon  arrived  in  Gera,  he  divined 
ihe  position  of  the  Prussian  army,  and  gave  orders 
to  his  marshals  to  swing  their  divisions  around  to 
the  west,  while  advancing  north  toward  the  Prus- 
sian flank.  By  October  12,  Murat's  cavalry  had 
already  penetrated  to  Naumburg,  the  Prussian  base 


1806  Oct.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  163 

of  supplies.     Threatened  in  their  rear,  the  Prussian  Prussian 

•^r  »  base  of 

general  staff  was  seized  with  consternation.  After  caffld 
endless  consultation,  they  decided  to  retreat.  By 
the  time  they  came  to  this  decision,  Davoust's  corps 
had  already  passed  the  dangerous  defiles  of  Koesen 
and  was  advancing  toward  the  Prussian  centre. 
Further  back,  near  Weimar,  marched  General  Kue- 
chel  with  30,000  Prussians,  while  Prince  Hohen- 
lohe's  former  van  was  transformed  into  a  rear- 
guard, covering  the  Prussian  retreat. 

On  the  night  of  October  13,  Napoleon,  from  the 
crest  of  the  Landgrafenberg,  beheld  the  camp  fires 
of  the  Prussian  rearguard  at  Jena.  He  determined 
to  strike  on  the  morrow.  All  that  night  was  spent 
in  getting  the  French  artillery  up  the  Landgrafen- 
berg. Napoleon  himself  lighted  the  way  with  a 
torch.  Lannes's  corps  hastened  to  occupy  the  foot- 
hills. Bernadotte's  advance  corps  was  despatched 
parallel  with  the  Prussian  line  of  retreat.  Ney  and 
Soult  hurried  up  in  all-night  marches,  to  fill  the 
place  left  by  Bernadotte's  division,  while  Murat's 
cavalry  was  summoned  from  afar.  All  night  long 
endless  columns  of  troops  were  toiling  to  reach  the 
firing  line.  At  last  Napoleon  snatched  a  few  hours 
of  sleep  at  one  of  the  camp  fires.  At  dawn  he  was 
up  and  rode  with  Lannes  through  the  lines.  The 
soldiers,  shivering  in  the  ranks,  waited  impatiently 
for  the  command  to  advance.  Under  cover  of  the 
morning  mist  the  army  was  ranged  in  final  battle 
order.  The  guards  remained  stationed  at  Napo- 
leon's headquarters. 

At  six  in  the  morning,  Lannes's  corps  poured  down 


J.04 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


Oct.  1806 


Prussian 

leaders 

deceived 


Battle  of 
Jeaa 


the  hillsides.  The  Prussians,  who  had  watched  the 
distant  torchlights  flickering  up  and  down  the  Land- 
grafenberg  all  night  long,  were  ready  for  the  fight. 
The  whole  vanguard  came  under  fire.  Prince  Ho- 
henlohe  believed  he  had  but  one  French  army  corps 
to  deal  with  and  determined  to  crush  it  with  his 
whole  force.  Lannes's  corps  suifered  severely.  Of 
the  other  French  divisions  only  that  of  Ney  was 
within  striking  reach.  At  noon,  Prince  Hohenlohe 
thought  victory  was  sure  and  sent  this  despatch  to 
General  Ruechel  in  his  rear.  "Send  all  the  force 
you  can  to  the  chief  point  of  attack.  At  this  mo- 
ment we  beat  the  enemy  at  all  points.  My  cavalry 
has  captured  some  of  his  cannon."  Napoleon  was 
on  the  point  of  throwing  his  guards  into  the  battle 
when  Ney's  main  army  descended  upon  the  Prus- 
sians, and  Soult  also  came  into  action  with  his 
vanguard.  Ney's  men  stormed  the  hamlet  of  Vier- 
zehnheiligen.  Soult  crumpled  up  the  Prussian  left 
wing  and  threw  the  disordered  Prussians  under  the 
fire  of  the  French  batteries  stationed  on  the  Land- 
grafenberg.  Hohenlohe  realized  that  he  was  losing 
the  battle.  He  despatched  an  aide-de-camp  to  Eue- 
chel  with  this  message:  "Lose  not  a  moment  in  ad- 
vancing with  your  yet  unbroken  troops!  Arrange 
your  columns  that  through  their  openings  may  pass 
the  broken  strands  of  the  battle.  Be  ready  to  re- 
ceive the  fierce  charge  of  the  enemy's  cavalry  which 
is  overwhelming  our  infantry,  cavalry  and  artil- 
lery." Hohenlohe's  situation  was  made  still  worse 
by  the  entry  of  Augereau's  corps  in  the  line  of 
battle.      General   Sujet   broke  through   the   woods 


J806  0ct.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  166 

of  Isslerdorf  and  cut  off  the  Saxon  guards  on  the 
line  of  retreat  to  Weimar.  They  alone  lost  6,000 
prisoners.  At  last  Euechel  marched  on  from 
Weimar  with  20,000  reserves.  They  were  thrown 
into  confusion  by  the  disordered  retreat  of  their 
comrades. 

It  was  now  four  in  tlie  afternoon.  Napoleon  saw 
that  the  decisive  moment  had  arrived.  He  ordered 
Murat's  cavalry,  which  had  just  come  up  from  its 
all-night  ride,  to  charge  the  Prussians.  Twelve 
thousand  horsemen  dashed  down  the  slope  straight 
into  the  confused  masses  of  Prussian  infantry. 
Everything  went  down  before  them.  The  battle  was 
over.  Murat's  squadrons  chased  the  fleeing  Prus- 
sians along  the  road  to  Weimar.  The  rest  of  the 
French  army  followed.  At  dusk  the  French  horse- 
men met  the  straggling  hordes  of  the  Prussian  main 
army,  which  had  gone  to  pieces  at  Auerstaedt. 

While  the  Prussian  right  and  centre  were  thusf^"H°'^* 

"  Auerstaedt 

engulfed,  their  left,  under  the  personal  command 
of  the  King,  his  aged  field-marshal,  the  Duke 
of  Brunswick,  and  General  Mollendorf,  were  en- 
gaged by  Davoust's  division.  The  loss  of  the 
Prussian  supplies  at  Naumburg  had  left  most  of 
the  troops  without  provisions.  Many  of  the  sol- 
diers had  eaten  nothing  for  the  last  two  days,  and 
Bliicher's  cavalry  had  to  go  without  fodder.  Early 
in  the  morning,  while  Napoleon  was  attacking  at 
Jena,  General  Schmettau  was  sent  forward  to  se- 
cure the  mountain  passes  of  Koesen.  The  Prussian 
squadrons  found  they  were  too  late.  Fighting  began 
at  Hassenhausen.     Hidden  under  a  heavy  mist,  the 


166  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Oct.  I80fl 

Auerst^'dt  ^''®°®^  vanguard  appeared  as  a  formidable  army, 
the  more  so  since  the  French  infantry,  forming  in 
squares,  fought  oft'  the  first  fierce  onslaughts  of  the 
Prussian  cavalry.  In  the  fog  and  confusion,  several 
batteries  of  Prussian  horse  artillery  were  ditched. 
The  main  body  of  the  Prussian  cavalry  under 
Blucher  now  tried  a  general  assault,  but  in  the 
haze  their  horses  were  hindered  by  the  roughness 
of  the  country.  The  incessant  fire  of  the  French 
skirmishers  created  havoc  among  them.  They 
never  got  within  sabre-reach  of  the  French.  In 
the  confusion  some  squadrons  came  under  the  fire 
of  the  Prussian  batteries  posted  on  their  flank. 
They  raised  a  cry  of  treason  and  galloped  to 
the  rear. 

On  the  extreme  right  the  Prussian  dragoons  suc- 
ceeded in  flanking  the  French,  but  the  Prussian 
infantry  was  so  slow  to  follow  that  Davoust  had 
time  to  throw  his  reserves  under  Morand  into 
the  intrenched  village  of  Hassenhausen.  Here  the 
French  held  off  the  Prussian  infantry.  At  last 
the  fog  lifted  and  the  generals  on  both  sides  could 
see  how  the  battle  stood.  The  Duke  of  Brunswick 
brought  some  field  batteries  into  action,  but  their 
scanty  ammunition  gave  out.  In  exasperation,  the 
aged  field-marshal  ordered  a  general  assault,  and 
himself  took  the  lead.  Riding  at  the  head  of  the 
famous  regiment  of  which  the  late  Prince  Louis  had 
been  the  colonel,  the  old  general  could  be  seen  by 
the  entire  battle  front  charging  into  the  French. 
The  whole  Prussian  line  followed.  Their  vanguard 
got  into  the  village,  but  were  shot  to  pieces  in  the 


1806  Oct.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  167 

churchyard,  la  the  thick  of  the  charge  the  Duke^^^t-hof 
of  Brunswick  fell,  shot  through  the  head.  The^'^""^"'^'''' 
Prussian  ranks  were  disheartened  bj  a  report  that 
their  King  had  been  killed.  At  this  point,  Davoust 
made  a  counter-attack  with  all  his  cavalry.  The 
Prussians  broke  and  fell  back  under  a  heavy  artil- 
lery fire.  At  Auerstaedt  they  came  to  a  standstill, 
and  the  reserves  were  called  into  battle.  It  was 
nearly  noon.  The  King  of  Prussia  himself  assumed 
command.  As  he  rode  through  the  lines  the  Prus- 
sian ranks  raised  a  cheer  and  rallied. 

Davoust's  third  division,  under  Friant,  was  trying 
to  outflank  the  Prussians  on  the  left  near  Poppel. 
Past  this  village  ran  the  highway  to  Weimar,  the 
Prussian  line  of  retreat.  The  King  took  alarm  and 
threw  his  reserves  under  Arnim  in  the  direction 
of  Poppel.  This  weakened  the  Prussian  line  at 
Auerstaedt.  Davoust  drew  his  two  remaining  di- 
visions together,  and,  shattering  the  Prussian  bri-  JiaL^'^'^^ 
gades,  seized  their  position  at  Auerstaedt.  The  centre 
of  the  battle  shifted  to  Poppel.  Here  the  Prussian 
rearguard  stood  its  ground,  while  the  bulk  of  the 
army  retreated  toward  Weimar.  The  French  tried 
to  storm  the  hills  on  the  other  side  of  Auerstaedt, 
but  were  repulsed  by  a  murderous  fire  from  the 
heights.  The  Prussians  followed  up  their  success 
by  a  bayonet  charge  and  threw  the  French  back 
into  Auerstaedt.  But  the  King  was  anxious  to 
reach  Weimar,  hoping  there  to  join  forces  with  his 
centre  and  right  under  Ruechel  and  Hohenlohe. 
Of  their  terrible  fate  he  knew  nothing.  So  orders 
were  given  to  retreat,  and  fall  back  on  Weimar.     At 


168  A    HISTORY    OF   THE  Oct.  180« 

Double  re-  Weimar,  the  Prussian  battalions,  fleeing  from    two 

treat  to  '  i  o 

Weimar  battlefields,  were  mixed  up  in  inextricable  confu- 
sion. Darkness  came.  It  brought  no  relief  to  the 
vanquished.  From  both  sides  the  French  pursuers 
were  upon  them.  Marauders  from  their  own  ranks 
seized  the  transport  wagons  and  increased  the  horror 
of  the  night  by  their  drunken  excesses.  The  Prus- 
sian King  with  his  staff  narrowly  escaped  Murat's 
dragoons.  He  fled  in  the  gloom  of  night,  plunging 
through  forests  and  rivers,  until,  utterly  worn  out, 
he  found  a  safe  retreat  at  Charlottenburg.  From 
there  he  fled  toward  the  Russian  frontier. 

Prussian        In  this  disastrous  twofold  battle,   the  Prussians 

losses 

lost  20,000  killed  and  wounded,  and  30,000  prison- 
ers, with  260  guns.  Twenty-six  of  their  general 
officers  were  taken.  The  Duke  of  Brunswick 
and  General  Schmettau  were  killed.  Prince  Henry 
of  Prussia  and  General  Ruechel  were  severely 
wounded.  The  French  losses,  according  to  their 
official  reports,  were  1,100  killed  and  3,000 
wounded.  Among  their  killed  were  one  brigadier- 
general  and  nine  colonels. 
Marshal         Napoleon  raised  Marshal  Davoust  to  the  rank  of 

Davoust  ^ 

honored  J)^\^q  ^f  Aucrstadt.  To  honor  him  still  more,  he 
made  a  public  promise  to  him  that  he  and  his  troops 
should  be  the  first  to  enter  Berlin.  Davoust  re- 
joined: "Sire,  the  soldiers  of  the  third  corps  will 
always  be  to  you  what  the  tenth  legion  was  to 
Caesar."  In  his  official  account  of  the  twofold  bat- 
tle of  Jena-Auerstadt,  Napoleon  wrote:  "On  our 
right  the  corps  of  Marshal  Davoust  performed 
prodigies.      Not   only   did   it   keep   the   enemy   in 


1808  Oct.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  169 

check  but  pursued  the  bulk  of  his  forces  over  a 
distance  of  three  leagues.  Marshal  Davoust  has 
displayed  alike  the  distinguished  bravery  and  firm- 
ness of  character  which  are  the  first  qualities  of  the 
soldier." 

While  the  shattered  divisions  of  the  Prussian 
army  were  driven  along  the  Elbe,  to  fall  a  prey 
to  their  pursuers  one  by  one,  Napoleon  established 
his  headquarters  at  Weimar.  The  Grandduke  ofaovefrnM- 
Weimar  had  commanded  a  division  of  the  Prus- 
sian army.  His  wife  was  the  sister  of  Emperor 
Alexander  of  Russia.  The  Grandduchess,  greatly 
agitated,  went  to  meet  Napoleon  as  he  rode  into  the 
devastated  city — the  Athens  of  modern  Gennany. 
"Madame,  you  see  what  war  is,"  said  Napoleon. 
That  was  his  only  comment.  Weimar,  with  the 
other  Saxon  States,   was  spared.      To  the  captive  saxony 

^  ■■  spared 

Saxon  officers.  Napoleon  said:  "I  know  not  why 
I  am  at  war  with  your  sovereign.  He  is  a  wise, 
pacific  prince,  deserving  of  respect.  I  wish  to  see 
your  country  rescued  from  its  humiliating  depen- 
dence upon  Prussia.  I  am  ready  on  my  part  to  give 
you  a  pledge  of  my  disposition  toward  you  by 
setting  you  all  at  liberty,  and  by  sparing  Saxony. 
All  1  require  of  you  is  your  promise  no  more  to 
bear  arms  against  France." 

On  October  28,  General  Mollendorf,  with  his  flee* 
ing  corps  of  16,000  Prussians,  surrendejed  to  Murat. 
Among  the  prisoners  were  Prince  August  of  Prus- 
sia, the  Prince  of  Mecklenburg-Schwerin,  and  Gen- 
eral Tauenzien.  Later  the  prisoners  were  liberated 
by  a  bold  charge  of  hussars  led  by  Lieutenant  von 

Yol.  1    —3 


170  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Oct.  1806 

Napoleon    Hellwig.      On    the    same    day   Berlin    was    taken. 

^'"'"^  J^apoleon,  riding  in  his  faded  gray  cloak  at  the 
head  of  his  resplendent  marshals,  made  a  triumphal 
entry  into  the  city.  He  established  himself  at  the 
royal  palace,  where  the  apartments  of  Queen  Louise 
had  been  left  in  disorder.  While  at  Berlin,  Count 
Hatzfeld,  the  governor  of  the  city,  got  into  trouble 
through  clandestine  correspondence  with  the  absent 
king.  Kapoleon  ordered  him  to  be  shot,  but  par- 
doned him  when  the  condemned  man's  wife  threw 
herself  at  his  feet.  Heinrich  von  Buelow,  who  had 
counselled  against  the  war,  was  delivered  to  the 
Russians,  whom  he  hated,  and  was  beaten  to  death 
by  his  Cossack  escort.     Previous  to  this  Napoleon 

Takes        visitcd  the  tomb  of  Frederick  the  Great.    The  sword 

Frederick 

the  Great's  of  Frederick,  suspended  above  the  tomb,  was  placed 
in  his  hand.  Napoleon  regarded  it  thoughtfully 
and  said;  "I  would  not  exchange  this  sword  of 
Frederick  for  millions.  I  will  send  it  to  the  Inva- 
lides.  My  old  soldiers  will  regard  with  religious 
reverence  a  trophy  which  has  belonged  to  the  most 
illustrious  captains  of  history."  General  Rapp  sug- 
gested that  Napoleon  keep  it  himself.  The  Em- 
peror gave  his  aid  a  look,  and  said  haughtily. 
•'Have  1  not  a  sword  of  my  own?"  All  the  me- 
morial standards  taken  from  the  French  and  Aus- 
trians  in  the  Seven  Years'  War  were  shipped  to 
France,  together  with  the  stone  column  that  com- 
memorated B'rederick's  victory  over  the  French  at 
Rossbach. 

A   fortnight    later    the  13,000  Prussian    reserves 
were  scattered   by   Bernadotte  at  flailo,   and  were 


Paiuted  by  G.  Richt 


By  peril 

QUEEN  LOUISE 


ol  Uciliu  l'liotuii.ai,liic  Co.,  N.  Y. 

XlXth  Cent.,  Vol.  One 


1806 Nov.  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  171 

driven  into  the  strong  city  of  Magdeburg.     'J^^isre ^j*',|,^^jj^jj. 
"Von  Kleist  capitulated  to  Ney.    The  town  of  Erfurt 
surrendered  next  with  14,000  men.     The  stronghold 
of  Kustrin  fell  without  a  blow.     Bliicher  and  YorkKustrin 
at  Luebeck  and  Kadkan,  after  sustaining  a  fierce  Luebeck 
siege  until    hand-to-hand  fighting   occurred  in  the 
streets,  were  forced  into  submission.     Of  the  Prus- 
sian army  of   150,000,  only  Estocque's  division  of 
15,000  r.emained.     They  crossed  the  frontier  to  join 
the  Eussian  army  approaching  through  Poland. 

Northern  Germany,  from  the  Ehine  to  the  Oder, 
lay  at  the  feet  of  the  conqueror.  Napoleon  called 
for  a  war  indemnity  of  150,000,000  francs  from 
Prussia  and  her  German  allies.  The  dominions  of 
Hanover,  Hesse,  and  Brunswick  were  forcibly  an- 
nexed to  France.     From  Berlin,   Napoleon  issued  Berlin 

^  decree 

a  decree  prohibiting  all  intercourse  with  Great 
Britain.  Englishmen  and  English  property  where- 
ever  found  were  to  be  seized.  Confiscations  were 
made  at  Hamburg.  The  harsh  provisions  of  this 
decree,  so  Napoleon  declared,  "should  be  regarded 
as  a  fundamental  law  of  the  French  Empire,  and 
her  allies,  till  England  recognized  the  law  of  war 
to  be  one  and  the  same  by  sea  and  by  land,  and  in 
no  case  applicable  to  private  property  or  to  indi- 
viduals not  bearing  arms,  and  until  she  consented^    ,, 

<->  '  Contlnen- 

to  restrict  the  right  of  blockade  to  fortified  places  ade'^'*'°''' 
actually  invested  by  a  sufiicient  force."  The  issue 
of  this  decree  caused  consternation  in  the  commer- 
cial centres  of  the  Continent.  Deputations  were 
sent  to  Napoleon  from  Hamburg  and  other  seaports. 
They    informed    Napoleon    that    "these    measures 


172  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Nov.  1806 

trado°'  would  involve  them  in  universal  bankruptcy  and 
banish  commerce  from  the  Continent."  He  replied: 
*'So  much  the  better.  The  bankruptcies  in  Eng- 
land will  be  more  numerous  and  you  will  be  less 
able  to  trade  with  her."  As  it  turned  out,  the  de- 
cree could  not  be  enforced  sufficiently  to  make  it 
effective.     The  world  owes  to  this  decree  the  ex- 

Invention 

su-lr*^  traction  of  sugar  from  beet-root,  invented  by  a 
Frenchman.  The  decrSe  of  Berlin  was  followed  by 
another  authorizing  the  levy  of  80,000  new  con- 
scripts in  France,  to  form  a  national  guard.     On 

War  with  Novcmbcr  25,  Napoleon  hastened  to  the  province 
of  Posen  to  arouse  Poland  against  the  Russians. 
Some  60,000  Polish  peasants  rose  in  arms.  Eussia 
issued  a  formal  declaration  of  war,  beginning  thus: 
"The  Lord  on  high  will  take  our  just  cause  under 

War  in  the  "^^^  protection."    At  the  same  time  a  Turkish  army 

Balkans  advauccd  to  the  Lower  Danube.  General  Sebas- 
tiani,  the  French  ambassador  at  Constantinople, 
had  at  last  aroused  the  Sultan  to  this  act  of  open 
hostility.  The  Russians  had  to  detach  80,000 
men  to  meet  the  new  danger,  and  the  Austrian 
army  of  observation  likewise  turned  eastward.  Aus- 
tria had  reason  to  feel  concerned,  for  the  Ottoman 
Empire  then,  as  so  often  after  this,  seemed  on  the 
verge  of  dissolution.  The  Russians,  under  Michael- 
son,  were  overrunning  Moldavia,  Bessarabia  and 
Wallachia,  after  they  had  occupied  Bucharest.    The 

Troubles    Servians,   under   Czerny   Georojos,  had   driven    the 

of  Turkey  .  "^  .  . 

Turks  from  their  land  and  laid  siege  to  Belgrade. 
Egypt  was  in  a  state  of  anarchy.  Mecca  and  Medina 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  Wachabees.     Bagdad  had 


1806  Deo.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  173 

become  independent,  A  French  army  lay  in  wait 
in  Dalmatia,  and  a  British  squadron  of  seven  men- 
of-war  under  Admiral  Louis  was  cruising  in  the 
Dardanelles.  In  Constantinople  the  Janizaries  were 
so  discontented  over  the  introduction  of  European 
tactics  in  the  Turkish  army  that  a  palace  revolt  was 
regarded  as  imminent.  Yet  Turkey  somehow  man- 
aged to  survive. 

During  the  last  days  of  November,  Napoleon  be- 
gan his  advance  against  the  Russians.  Bennigsen's 
column  of  60,000  was  pushed  back  on  Pultusk.  ^^^^°l* 
Ney  and  Bernadotte's  division  moved  eastward  over 
the  river  Weichsel  or  Vistula.  Davoust  and  Launes 
occupied  Warsaw  and  swung  their  divisions  north- 
ward. In  the  centre,  the  divisions  of  Soult  and 
Augereau  advanced  amid  constant  skirmishes  as 
far  as  Golymin.  Lannes's  corps  pushed  on  to  Pul- 
tusk to  cut  off  the  Russians  from  the  Narev.  Soult 
and  Bernadotte  were  to  cover  a  possible  Russian 
retreat  on  Ostrolenka.  On  Christmas  Day  the  Rus- 
sian right  wing  became  engaged  with  Bernadotte's 
forces  at  Moehrungen  and  was  pushed  back  under  Moehrun- 

gen 

heavy  losses  on  both  sides.  Bernadotte's  attempt 
to  outflank  the  Russians  failed. 

The  next  day  Lannes  attacked  Bennigsen's  centre 
at  Pultusk,  thirteen  leagues  north  of  Warsaw. 
Simultaneously  Napoleon  sent  the  divisions  of 
Augereau  with  Murat's  cavalry  against  the  lius- 
sians  under  Buxhovden  at  Golymin,  six  leagues  Qoiymin 
away.  The  Russians  stood  their  ground  so  well 
that  the  fight  at  Golymin  lasted  all  day,  with  heavy 
losses  on  both  sides.      General  Rapp,   Napoleon's 


174  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Dec.  180e 

aide-de-camp,  was  severely  woanded.  It  the  end 
puitusk  ^Yie  Russians  retreated  in  good  order.  At  Jfultusk 
equally  bitter  fighting  on  both  sides  only  resulted 
in  a  drawn  battle.  For  eight  long  hours  Lannes's 
veterans  had  to  sustain  the  murderous  fire  of  the 
Russians  while  standing  in  a  deep  morass.  Lannes 
himself  succumbed  to  the  strain  and  had  to  relin- 
quish the  command.  At  nightfall  Bennigsen  took 
the  Russian  army  across  the  Narev  without  serious 
hindrance  from  the  French.  After  this  double 
disappointment,  Napoleon's  army  went  into  winter 
hardships  quarters.      The  closing   days   of  the  year  brought 

in  Poland 

famine  and  wretchedness  to  the  French  soldiers 
camping  on  the  frozen  marshes.  Bad  weather  made 
the  roads  impassable  for  the  transport  wagons.  The 
Russians  had  destroyed  everything  for  miles  around, 
so  that  food  and  provender  were  very  scarce.  The 
distress  was  so  great  that  a  number  of  the  starving 
soldiers  committed  suicide.  Napoleon  betook  him- 
to^'^arsaw  ^^^^  *^  Warsaw.  There  the  Polish  nobles  and  patriots 
gave  him  an  enthusiastic  welcome  as  their  deliverer. 
One  of  the  first  to  greet  him  was  Countess  Valevska, 
a  Polish  beauty.  Her  efforts  to  win  the  French 
Emperor  to  her  country's  cause  ended  in  a  love 
afl:air.  She  was  induced  to  follow  Napoleon  from 
camp  to  camp,  and  finally  to  Paris.  Later  she  bore 
him  a  son,  Alexander,  who  distinguished  himself  un- 
der the  second  empire.  Yet  Napoleon  gave  a  deaf 
ear  to  all  entreaties  for  Poland.  "I  like  the  Poles," 
he  said,  "their  enthusiasm  pleases  me.  I  should 
like  to  make  them  an  independent  people;  but 
the  cake  has  been  shared  by  too  many.     When  the 


1806  Dec.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  176 

match  is  kindled  who  knows  where  the  con flagra- doubts  as 

°         to  inten- 
tion may  stop.     Mj  first  duty  is   toward   France.  J;ardl"n; 

I  must  not  sacrifice  her  interests  for  Poland.     In 

short,   we   must  refer   the  matter   to   the  universal 

sovereign — Time."     It  is  doubtful,  at  best,  whether 

Napoleon   ever   intended  to  free  Poland.     At  that 

time  he  could  not  afford  to  arouse  the  eomity  of 

Austria  with  her  army  of  observation  in  his  rear. 

To  the  entreaties  of  Polish  deputations  he  made  this 

final  statement:   "I  have  not  come  here  to  involve 

France  in  new  quarrels.    I  am  not  in  want  of  thrones 

\o  give  away." 


176 


A   HISTORY  OF   THE 


Jan.  1907 


1807 


Results 
of  Con- 
tinental 
blockade 


THE  OLD  YEAE  had  scarcely  run  out  before 
the  civilized  nations  had  begun  to  feel  the 
eflEects  of  JMapoleon's  staggering  blow  to 
commerce.  Late  in  December,  (xeneral  Armstrong, 
the  American  Minister  in  Paris,  asked  Talleyrand 
for  an  explanation  of  Napoleon's  decree  so  far 
as  it  affected  American  trade.  He  received  no 
satisfactory  reply.  All  was  deferred  to  the  French 
Emperor  lying  in  distant  winter  quarters  at  War- 
saw. The  new  year  opened  with  international  com- 
merce at  the  mercy  of  the  two  most  powerful 
nations — France  and  England — now  locked  in 
deadly  conflict.  On  January  7,  the  British  Min- 
istry responded  to  Napoleon  with  a  retaliatory 
retaliatory  measurc.        The    bill    related    that     King    George 

measures 

"felt  himself  bound  to  retort  upon  the  French 
the  evils  of  their  own  injustice,  and  therefore 
has  ordered  that  no  vessel  shall  be  permitted  to 
trade  from  one  port  to  another,  both  which  ports 
Effects  on  shall  bcloug  to  or  be  in  possession  of  France  or  her 
allies."  This  bill  proved  a  blow  to  American  com- 
merce. It  deprived  American  ships  of  the  right 
to  sail  from  one  European  port  to  another.  From 
the  point  of  view  of  the  more  enlightened  British 
Whigs,  the   bill,   though  drafted  by  a  Whig  Min- 


Americao 
shipping 


1807  Feb.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  111 

ister,  was  really  a  concession  to  King  George  apd 
Tory  prejudices.  The  Whigs  denounced  iv  a8> 
against  common-sense  and  good  political  economy, 
a  measure  in  line  with  the  violent  aggressions  of 
Pitt.  For  three  weeks  the  debate  raged  in  Parlia- 
ment before  the  bill  was  finally  passed,  it  was  the 
last  important  measure  of  Grenville's  so-called  Min- 
istry of  "all  the  talents" — a  Ministry  more  liberal 
than  England  was  destined  to  see  for  a  generation. 
As  an  immediate  result  of  this  bill,  the  United  umted 

'  states  e3« 

States  were  estranged  from  England.  Jefferson  re- fro^"^'' 
pudiated  the  new  treaty  concluded  by  Monroe  and  °^'*° 
Pinckney  without  even  submitting  it  to  Congress. 
A  few  weeks  previous  to  this  the  French  Minister 
had  written  to  Talleyrand:  "If  I  am  to  judge  by 
the  talk  and  countenances  of  the  general  people, 
this  Congress  will  be  more  favorable  to  England 
than  the  last  was.  Already  its  leader,  under  the 
President's  own  invitation,  shows  a  benevolent  dis- 
position toward  the  British  government."  Jefferson 
himself  wrote  to  Monroe  at  the  Court  of  St.  James: 
"No  two  countries  have  so  many  points  of  common 
interest  and  friendship,  and  their  rulers  must  be 
great  bunglers  indeed  if  with  such  dispositions  they 
break  them  asunder.  England  may,  by  petty  lar- 
ceny thwartings,  check  us  on  the  ocean,  but  she 
cannot  seriously  retard  us."  Now  all  this  was 
changed,  and  a  feeling  of  exasperation  set  in  which 
was  destined  to  bring  the  two  countries  into  conflict. 
For  the  moment,  President  Jefferson  was  too 
engrossed  in  other  affairs  to  take  any  decisive  f^fed't^r'^ 
act.     The  exciting   trial    of    Aaron   Burr   for  trea- 


178  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Spring  1807 

son  was  just  getting  under  way,  and  the  political 
enemies  of  the  President  were  beginning  to  bait 
him.  Without  such  distractions,  Jefferson's  natu- 
ral inclinations  were  against  war.  "The  present 
administration,"  said  he,  "has  taken  up  a  new 
system  of  defence — it  is  that  of  saving  the  public 
money.  This  system  is  new  and  was  not  known  in 
Federal  times.  We  have  not  gone  on  increasing 
taxes  like  our  predecessors."  This  was  the  truth. 
With   the   help   of   Gallatin,    the   Secretarj  of   the 

fii^nc'r^"  Treasury,  the  administration  had  succeeded  in  pay- 
ing off  twenty-four  millions  of  debts.  Still  the  rev- 
enues grew.  Eppes,  of  Virginia,  the  President's  son- 
in-law,  said  in  Congress,  "If  there  is  any  principle 
which  ought  to  be  hooted  at  in  a  Eepublican  gov- 
ernment, it  is  that  to  preserve  peace  we  should  be 
prepared  for  war.  Sir,  it  is  this  very  principle 
which  is  the  source  of  all  the  miseries  of  Eu- 
rope." 

In  his  message  to  Congress,  Jefferson  called  for 
a  broad  system  of  internal  improvements,  a  na- 
tional system  of  roads  and  canals,  a  national  univer- 
sity and  the  organization  of  a  national  militia  to  re- 

jefferson    placc  the  regular  army.     The  most  striking  feature 

proposes 

opposition  of   his  message   was  the   proposed  abolition  of   all 

of  slave  °  r      r 

trade  slave  trade.  "I  congratulate  you,  fellow  citizens, 
on  the  approach  of  the  period  when  you  may  inter- 
pose your  authority  constitutionally  to  withdraw  as 
citizens  of  the  United  States  from  all  further  par- 
ticipation in  tbose  violations  of  human  rights  which 
have  been  so  long  continued  on  the  unoffending  in- 
habitants of  Africa,   and  which   the  morality,   the 


1807  Spring  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  179 

reputation,  and   the    best   interests  of   our   country 
have  long  been  eager  to  proscribe." 

It  was  a  reform  worthy  of  the  new  spirit  of  the 
age.  In  England,  Parliament  at  this  very  time  was 
debating  a  bill  to  put  a  stop  to  all  slave  trading 
with  Africa.  In  Russia,  Emperor  Alexander  freed 
the  Russian  serfs  in  the  Baltic  provinces.  Jeffer-  ^["^"f'P"^' 
son's  proposed  prohibition  of  the  slave  trade  threw  ^"fa'*" 
a  vivid  light  on  those  sectional  differences  in  Amer- 
ica, which  were  destined  to  lead  to  secession  and 
civil  war.  Under  the  act,  a  cargo  of  a  forfeited 
vessel  was  to  be  sold  on  behalf  of  the  United  States 
government.  The  cargo  of  a  slave  ship  consisted  of 
negroes.  Bather  than  see  this  done,  Sloan  of  New 
Jersey  offered  an  amendment  in  Congress  that 
every  forfeited  negro  should  be  entitled  to  free- 
dom. Upon  this  amendment  a  debate  arose  which 
waxed  exceeding  hot.  The  Southern  representa- Premoni- 
tives,  almost  to  a  man,  opposed  it.  The  debate  ^i'J!,^'"^^^^ 
was  adjourned,  resumed,  and  adjourned  again.  It 
was  further  imbittered  by  a  motion  of  Smiley  of 
Pennsylvania  to  make  the  importation  of  negroes 
a  felony  punishable  by  death.  "All  the  people 
in  the  Southern  States  are  concerned  in  slaves," 
retorted  Early,  the  chairman  of  the  committee  in 
charge  of  the  bill.  "By  them  it  is  not  considered 
as  criminal.  I  will  tell  the  truth — a  large  majority 
of  the  people  in  the  Southern  States  do  not  consider 
slavery  as  even  an  evil."  The  Quaker  amendment 
was  rejected  by  a  majority  of  ten.  Bidwell  of  Mas- 
sachusetts next  moved,  "That  no  person  shall  be 
sold   as   a   slave  by  virtue  of  this  act.''     On  this 


m 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE 


Spring  1807 


Seeds  of 
discord 

SOWD 


Burr  a 
source  of 
embar- 
rassment 


amendment  the  House  of  Representatives  tied,  sixty 
to  sixty.  Tlie  speaker  by  his  vote  threw  out  the 
amendment.  When  other  similar  amendments  were 
proposed,  Early  made  this  significant  statement  in 
behalf  of  the  South:  "We  want  no  civil  wars,  no 
rebellions,  no  insurrections,  no  resistance  to  the 
authority  of  the  government.  Give  effect  to  this 
wish,  and  do  not  pass  this  bill  as  it  stands." 

Randolph  of  Virginia  asserted  that  the  coastwise 
prohibition  touched  the  right  of  private  property 
and  expressed  fears,  "Lest,  at  a  future  period,  it 
might  be  made  a  pretext  of  universal  emancipa- 
tion. I  had  rather  lose  all  the  bill,  1  had  rather 
lose  all  the  bills  of  the  session,  I  had  rather  lose 
all  the  bills  passed  since  the  establishment  of  the 
government,  than  agree  to  the  provisions  contained 
in  this  slave  bill.  If  ever  the  time  of  disunion  be- 
tween these  States  should  arrive,  the  line  of  sever^ 
ance  will  not  be  between  Eastern  and  Western,  but 
between  slave-holding  and  non-slave-holding  States. 
All  that  I  ask  is  that  the  North  shall  remain  neu' 
tral,  that  it  shall  not  erect  itself  into  an  abolition 
society."  Yet  the  bill  prohibiting  the  slave  trade 
went  through.  President  Jefferson  approved  the 
measure. 

The  opposition  against  Jefferson's  administration 
was  largely  strengthened  by  this.  The  proceedings 
against  Burr  helped  to  place  Jefferson  in  an  awk- 
ward position.  The  conspiracy  of  Burr  had  been  a 
mere  episode  amid  many  more  vital  questions  thai 
stirred  the  American  people.  While  New  Orleans 
was  convulsed  by  Burr's  attempted  coup  d'etat  in 


1807  Spring  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  181 

that  city,  the  rest  of  the  country  refused  to  believe 
that  the  former  Vice-President  was  so  insane  as  to 
expect  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  For  this  general 
apathy  Jefferson  himself  was  largely  responsible. 
He  had  long  belittled  the  importance  of  Burr's 
conspiracy,  and  he  permitted  Greneral  Wilkinson 
to  remain  in  command  of  the  American  army  after 
it  had  become  evident  that  this  general  suffered 
himself  to  become  involved  in  Burr's  schemes. 
Wilkinson  saved  himself  by  turning  against  Burr,  kinaon's' 

-TTT'ii  •  1  treachery 

To  understand  W  ilkinson  s  conduct,  Americans 
must  look  into  the  archives  of  the  crown  of 
Spain.  On  January  28,  1807,  Yrujo,  the  Spanish 
Minister  to  the  United  States,  wrote  to  Cevallos  in 
Madrid:  "According  to  appearances  Spain  has  saved A|^anwh 
the  United  States  from  the  separation  of  the  union 
which  menaced  them.  This  would  have  taken  place 
if  Wilkinson  had  entered  cordially  into  the  plans  of 
Burr.  This  was  to  be  expected  because  Wilkinson 
detests  his  present  government,  and  the  separation 
of  the  Western  States  has  long  been  his  favorite 
plan.  The  evil  has  come  from  the  foolish  and  per- 
tinacious perseverance  with  which  Burr  has  per- 
sisted in  carrying  out  the  wild  project  against 
Mexico.  Wilkinson  is  entirely  devoted  to  us.  He 
enjoys  a  considerable  pension  from  our  King.  .  .  . 
Failure  of  Burr's  attempt  would  have  left  Wilkin- 
son like  the  dog  in  the  fable  with  the  piece  of  meat 
in  his  mouth — that  is,  he  would  lose  the  honorable 
position  he  holds  at  home,  and  the  generous  pension 
he  enjoys  from  the  King.  These  considerations,  se- 
cret in  their  nature,  he  could  not  explain  to  Burr. 


182  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Summer  18OT 

When  the  latter  persisted  in  an  idea  so  fatal  to 
Wilkinson's  interest,  nothing  remained  but  to  take 
the  course  adopted.  By  this  means  he  assures  his 
pension,  and  will  allege  this  as  an  extraordinary 
service,  either  for  getting  it  increased  or  for  some 
generous  compensation.  On  the  other  hand,  this 
proceeding  secures  his  distinguished  rank  in  the 
military  service  of  the  United  States.  In  such  an 
alternative  he  has  acted  as  was  to  be  expected; 
that  is,  he  has  sacrificed  Burr  in  order  to  obtain, 
on  the  ruin  of  Burr's  reputation,  the  advantages 
1  have  pointed  out."  On  one  point  Yrujo  wrote 
from  positive  knowledge.  The  general-in-chief  of 
the  American  army  was  in  the  pay  of  Don  Carlos 
lY.  He  took  a  pension  of  $2,000  a  year  in  consid- 
eration of  secret  services.  For  twenty  years  these 
services  had  been  rendered  and  the  pension  had 
Jefferson's  bccu  paid.  By  supporting  Wilkinson,  Jefferson 
Wilkinson  lost  the  last  support  of  such  men  as  John  Ran- 
dolph and  Chief -Justice  Marshall.  From  the  first 
arraignment  of  Burr  in  January,  until  the  last  day 
of  his  trial  at  Richmond  in  October,  the  proceedings 
against  Burr  seemed  a  matter  of  secondary  impor- 
tance compared  with  the  discomfiture  of  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States.  Burr,  who  was  himself 
Burr's  trial  °*^  nican  lawyer,  was  defended  by  the  ablest  counsel 
&aa,^  of  the  American  bar — Edmund  Randolph,  George 
Washington's  attorney -general;  John  Wickham, 
the  famous  Virginia  wit;  Benjamin  Botts,  an  un- 
usually thoroughgoing  attorney,  and  Luther  Mar- 
tin, who  had  made  a  great  name  for  himself  by  his 
defence  of  Justice  Chase.     On  the  government  side, 


1807  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  183 

the  death  of  Attorney-General  Breckenridge  left  an 
irreparable  loss.  Caesar  A.  Eodney,  his  successor, 
left  the  prosecution  of  Burr  to  District-Attorney 
Hay  and  his  associates,  William  Wirt  and  Alexan- 
der McRae,  the  Lieutenant-Grovernor  of  Virginia. 
From  the  very  outset  Chief-Justice  Marshall  de- 
cided against  the  government.  In  one  of  his  early 
opinions  he  blamed  the  administration  for  neglect  feffefso°n 
of  duty:  "Several  months  have  elapsed  since  this^"'*''^* 
attempt  occurred — if  it  did  occur.  More  than  five 
weeks  have  passed  since  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme 
Court  has  declared  the  necessity  of  proving  the  fact 
if  it  exists.  Why  is  it  not  proved?  To  the  Execu- 
tive Government  is  intrusted  the  important  power  of 
prosecution  of  those  whose  crimes  may  disturb  the 
public  repose  or  endanger  its  safety.  It  would  be 
easy  in  much  less  time  than  has  intervened  since 
Colonel  Burr  was  alleged  to  have  assembled  his 
troops,  to  procure  affidavits  establishing  the  fact." 
Jefferson's  reply  to  this  censure  from  the  Supreme 
Bench  gives  a  glimpse  of  the  general  condition  of 
the  country  ^n  those  days.  "In  what  terms  of  de- 
cency can  we  speak  of  this  ?  As  if  an  express 
could  go  to  Natchez  or  the  mouth  of  the  Cumber- 
land and  return  in  five  weeks  to  do  which  has  never 
taken  less  than  twelve!"  Chief-Justice  Marshall's jug^fje 
ruling,  that  the  President  of  the  United  States  could  censure 
be  subpoenaed  in  court  as  a  witness,  stung  Jefferson 
to  the  quick.  He  wrote  to  the  District- Attorney: 
"The  leading  feature  of  our  Constitution  is  the  in- 
dependence of  the  legislative,  executive  and  judiciary 
of  each  other;    and  none  are  more  jealous  of  this 


184  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Summer  isa? 

than  the  judiciary.  But  would  the  executive  be 
independent  of  the  judiciary  if  he  were  subject  to 
the  commands  of  the  latter  and  to  imprisonment  for 
disobedience?"  The  judge  upon  the  bench  retorted 
cuttingly,  "It  is  apparent  that  the  President's  duties 
as  chief  magistrate  do  not  demand  his  whole  time 
and  are  not  unremitting."  Jefferson  gave  way  to  a 
burst  of  anger.  "I  have  heard,"  he  wrote  in  another 
letter,  "that  my  predecessor,  General  Washington, 
sometimes  decided  things  against  his  council  by 
dashing  and  trampling  his  wig  upon  the  floor. 
This  only  proves  what  you  and  I  knew,  that  he 
had  a  better  heart  than  head."  Justice  Marshall 
appointed  John  Randolph,  Jefferson's  political  op- 
ponent, as  clerk  of  the  grand  jury.  Raudolph  made 
General      evcrv  effort  to  fasten  Burr's  guilt  on  Wilkinson, 

Wilkinson  "^  *=  ' 

implicated  j^^^.  failed.  The  motion  to  indict  Wilkinson  was 
lost  in  the  grand  jury  room  by  a  bare  majority 
of  two.  Randolph  wrote  in  a  letter,  "Perhaps  you 
never  saw  human  nature  in  so  degraded  a  situation 
as  in  the  person  of  Wilkinson  before  the  grand 
jury.  And  yet  the  man  stands  on  the  very  sum- 
rait  and  pinnacle  of  executive  favor,  while  James 
Monroe  is  denounced."  Throughout  the  trial  feel- 
ing ran  very  high,  especially  in  Richmond  and  the 
South.  "As  I  was  crossing  the  court-house  green 
to  the  Eagle  Tavern,"  wrote  an  eye-witness,  "1 
heard  a  great  noise  of  haranguing  some  distance 
off.  Inquiring  what  it  was,  I  was  told  it  was 
Andrew  ^  great  blackguard  from  Tennessee,  one  Andrew 
and'^u^r  Jacksou,  making  a  speech  for  Burr,  and  damning 
Jefferson."      Finally    Judge    Marshall    struck    the 


ISOfr  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  185 

prosecution  dumb  by  a  ruling  which  excluded 
the  testimony  of  Blennerhassett  against  Burr: 
"Because  such  testimony,  being  in  its  nature 
merely  corroborative  and  incompetent  to  prove 
the  overt  act  in  itself,  is  irrelevant  until  there  be 
proof  of  the  overt  act  by  two  witnesses."     After  Aaron  Burr 

acquitted 

this    ruling    of    the    court,    the    prosecution    aban 
doned    the    case    and    the   jury   entered   a    verdict 
of  "not  guilty." 

Jefferson  made  elaborate  preparations  to  im- 
peach the  Supreme  Court,  but,  in  truth,  nothing 
was  to  be  feared.  The  days  of  Jefferson's  power 
and  glory  were  passing,  while  Marshall  was  only 
at  the  threshold  of  his  illustrious  legal  career. 

While  this  cause  c^l^bre  was  on  the  boards  in  the 
New  World,  another  more  tragic  State  trial  had 
drawn  to  a  close  in  Vienna.      General  Mack  and ■^"^'^'■'^° 

generals 

several  of  his  unfortunate  fellow  officers  were  court-  p"'^'^^®'' 
martialled  for  their  disastrous  blunders  during  the 
last  Austrian  campaign  against  Napoleon.  General 
Mack  was  unanimously  sentenced  to  death,  but  Em- 
peror Francis  remitted  the  sentence.  The  Prince  of 
Auersperg,  who  had  neglected  to  destroy  the  bridge 
at  Vienna,  though  he  had  received  positive  orders 
to  do  so,  was  condemned  to  imprisonment  for  tea 
years.  Several  other  officers  were  punished,  but  in 
most  cases  the  Emperor  softened  their  sentences. 
In    Paris,   questions  of   more   lastmg   importance  Jewish 

Sanhedrim 

were  settled  by  the  great  Sanhedrim,  a  convention  of  Paris 
of  seventy-one  Jewish   rabbis  and  notables  which 
sat  for  over  a  year  under  the  leadership  of  David 
Sinzheim  and  Furtado.     As  a  result  of  their  delib- 


186  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Jan.  isoi 

erations  they  issued  a  rescript  for  Jewish  guidance 
in  the  spring  of  1807.  The  Mosaic  dispensation, 
while  recognized  as  absolute  in  religious  matters, 
was  declared  inapplicable  to  mundane  affairs,  since 
the  Jews  had  ceased  to  exist  as  a  nation.  Polyga- 
mous marriage  as  practiced  by  the  patriarchs  was 
forbidden.  Marriages  between  Christians  and  Jews 
were  recognized.  Jews  called  to  military  service 
were  exempted  from  religious  observances  conflict- 
ing with  military  duty.  Usury,  in  particular,  was 
denounced  as  a  crime  against  law  and  religion. 

Napoleon,  during  this  interval,  had  been  held  in 

check  in  his  winter  quarters  on  the  distant  Vistula. 

The  cam-    His  soldicrs  fouud  themselves  in  a  worse  situation 

paign  in 

Poland  ^jj^jj  QyQY  before.  The  winter  was  severe  and  the 
wretched  state  of  the  impoverished  country  made 
campaigning  atrocious.  All  supplies  had  to  be 
brought  from  interminable  distances  and  over 
roads  that  were  all  but  impassable.  In  Silesia, 
the  Prussian  strongholds  of  Breslau,  Brieg  and 
Schweidnitz  had  to  be  reduced  by  long  sieges. 
The   Eussians    under   the   command   of    Bennigsen 

Sufferings  held  their  ground  tenaciously.     By  the  end  of  Jan- 

of  French  °  J  J 

soldiers  uary,  Marshal  Ney's  corps  had  suffered  so  severely 
that  he  resolved  to  strike  northward  for  better  win- 
ter quarters  at  Koenigsberg.  A  Prussian  division 
of  10,000  under  Estocque  stood  in  his  way.  At  the 
news  of  Ney's  movement,  Bennigsen  marched  his 
whole  army  out  of  cantonments.  He  hoped  to  over- 
whelm Ney's  12,000  men  with  his  56,000  Russians. 
Napoleon  at  once  broke  up  his  winter  quarters  at 
Warsaw   and    marched,    with    his   guards   and   the 


1807  Feb.  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  187 

divisions  of  Soult,  Augereau  and  Davoust.  Ber- 
nadotte,  who  stood  at  Elbing,  received  iiis  march- 
ing orders  too  late  to  fall  into  line.  The  corps  of 
veterans,  hitherto  commanded  by  Lannes,  was  left 
behind  to  cover  the  banks  of  the  Narev.  Bennig- 
sen,  finding  his  flank  threatened,  had  to  give  up  his 
pursuit  of  Ney,  nor  could  he  prevent  the  latter  from 
getting  in  touch  with  the  French  main  army.  The  ^oft^ftfea 
Prussian  column,  engaged  with  Key's  forces,  re- 
mained detached.  On  February  7,  Bennigsen  gath- 
ered all  his  available  forces  to  withstand  the  French 
at  Eylau.  The  first  to  arrive  were  Murat's  cavalry 
and  some  of  Soult's  mounted  squadrons.  Together 
they  attacked  the  Russian  line  and  captured  Prus- 
sian Eylau.  At  nightfall  a  solid  mass  of  Russian 
infantry  stormed  the  town  with  the  bayonet  and 
sent  the  French  squadrons  flying.  Prince  Eugene 
of  Wurtemberg  tells  in  his  memoirs  how  hideously 
the  raucous  battle  cry  of  the  Tobolski  regiment  rang 
in  his  ears  during  that  night.  Under  cover  of  the 
darkness  the  main  army  with  Napoleon  came  up  and 
ranged  itself  in  battle  line.  The  divisions  of  Ney 
and  Soult  formed  the  left  wing,  while  Augereau 
with  the  guards  and  Murat's  cavalry  behind  them 
held  the  centre.  Davoust's  columns  marching  over- 
night were  to  form  the  right  wing.  It  was  a  dark 
night  and  bitterly  cold.  Eylau  lay  on  a  slight  rise 
of  land  extending  two  or  three  miles,  skirted  by  a 
vast  bleak  plain  on  which  the  snow  blew  in  drifts. 
Upon  the  ridge  the  Russians  posted  all  their  artil-  Advantage 

*■  '^  *  K-aiiied  by 

lery  and  the  bulk  of  their  infantry,  80,000  strong.  Russians 
Before  them  in  the  plain  70,000  Frenchmen   bi^ 


188  A    HISTORY   OF   TEE  Feb.  18(W 

ouacked  in  the  snow.  At  midnight  Napoleon 
snatched  an  hour's  sleep  on  a  camp-stool.  Before 
dawn  he  made  his  last  dispositions. 

The  battle  opened  on  both  sides  with  prolonged 
artillery  fire  at  pointblank  range.  The  eifects  of 
this  cannonade  were  fearful.  Whole  regiments  of 
St.  Hilaire's  corps  were  mowed  down  by  grape-shot. 
The  Twenty-fourth  French  regiment  of  the  line,  con- 
sisting of  3,600  veterans  under  Colonel  Sem^le,  was 
wiped  out.  Napoleon  and  his  guard  established 
themselves  in  the  churchyard  of  Eylau.  From 
Battle  of    there  Napoleon  ordered  the  corps  of  St.  Hilaire  and 

Eylau  ^  "^ 

Augereau  to  lead  the  advance  against  the  flussian 
left.  Marshal  Augereau,  shaking  with  fever,  had 
himself  strapped  to  his  horse  and  galloped  up  the 
slope  at  the  head  of  his  division.  In  the  face  of  a 
blinding  blizzard  the  French  standards  were  lost  to 
sight  among  the  whirling  snowflakes.  During  the 
storm,  which  lasted  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  Au- 
gereau's  column  missed  its  objective.  Napoleon 
ordered  Murat  to  ride  to  their  rescue  with  some 
of  his  squadrons.  Suddenly  there  was  a  rift  in 
the  storm.  From  all  sides  the  Eussians  fell  upon 
Augereau's  stray  columns.  The  Frenchmen  were 
shot  down  with  grape  and  canister  and  fell  a  prey 
to  the  spears  of  the  Cossacks.  Marshal  Augereau 
went  down  with  his  horse,  and  his  troops  fell  all 
around  him.  The  Fourteenth  regiment  of  the  line, 
rallying  to  its  standard,  was  cut  down  almost  to  a 
man.  Through  the  struggling  mass  dashed  the  yel- 
low hussars  of  Novgorod.  They  cut  their  way  up 
to  the  very  wall  of  the  graveyard  in  which  Napo* 


3807  Feb.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  189 

leoa  stood  watching  the  battle  through  his  field 
glass.  "Save  the  Emperor  1"  cried  the  members 
of  his  staff  as  they  scrambled  on  their  horses.  But 
Napoleon  did  not  stir.  At  an  order  from  him,  the 
Old  Guard,  under  their  colonel,  Dorsenne,  threw 
themselves  between  their  Emperor  and  the  Hussians 
and  broke  the  force  of  the  cavalry  attack.  At 
the  same  instant  Napoleon's  scarlet  horseguards 
swooped  down  on  the  Russian  Hussars  and  carried 
them  down  the  hill  in  a  running  fight.  General 
Corbineau  was  killed  by  a  shell  while  he  was  re- 
ceiving orders  from  the  Emperor.  Young  Captain 
Auzoni  of  the  Guards,  one  of  Napoleon's  favorite 
officers,  died  kissing  his  hand  to  La  Belle  France. 
At  this  point  Murat  thundered  into  the  breach  Jurat's 

••■  memorabia 

with  eighty  squadrons  of  cavalry.  Colonel  Haut-  *^^^^s^ 
poul,  who  led  the  charge,  was  the  first  to  fall. 
This  assault  of  10,000  troopers  in  full  career  has 
remained  one  of  the  famous  traditions  of  the  French 
army.  As  a  strategic  manoeuvre  it  cannot  be  pro- 
nounced a  success.  All  it  did  was  to  bring  the 
battle  to  a  standstill!  At  least  such  is  the  verdict 
of  Prince  Alexander  of  Wurtemberg,  who  saw  it 
with  his  own  eyes.  In  and  about  the  town  of 
Eylau,  the  fighting  was  so  fierce  that  the  Rus- 
sians used  the  bodies  of  the  dead  for  barricades. 
Marshal  Murat  and  his  chief  lieutenant,  Count 
Lasalle,  had  to  fight  for  their  lives,  sabre  in  hand. 
Fisfhtinor  from  street  to  street  and  from  house  to 
house,  the  French  at  last  succeeded  in  retaking 
Eylau. 

On  the  right,  Davouat  drove  the  Russians  from 


190  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  Feb.  18OT 

Serpallen  to  Saussgarten,  and  thence  as  far  back 
as  the  village  of  Kuschitten.  There  he  was  stopped 
short  by  the  sudden  appearance  of  a  division  of 
Prussians  under  L'Estocque,  who  had  succeeded  in 
joining  the  Russian  main  army  despite  Ney's  diver- 
Prussians   siou.     "With  buglcs  blowing  and  drums  beating,  the 

save  tlie 

day  Prussians  threw  themselves  into  the  fight  and  drove 

back  Davoust's  division.  At  nightfall  Ney's  de- 
tachments came  up  on  the  road  from  Schmodetten 
just  in  time  to  stop  the  retrograde  movement  of  the 
French  right  wing.  It  was  dark,  and  the  snowy 
plain  was  strewn  with  the  dead  and  dying.  As 
Marshal  Ney  rode  upon  the  battlefield  he  shud- 
dered and  said,  "What  a  massacre — and  ^without 
any  issue." 

It  was  in  truth  a  drawn  battle.  The  French  army 
had  suffered  so  fearfully  that  Napoleon  could  not 
have  kept  his  positions  any  length  of  time  before  a 
resolute  foe.  As  it  turned  out,  he  prevailed  by  dint 
of  sheer  tenacity.  General  Bennigsen,  in  disregard 
of  the  entreaties  of  General  Knorring  and  Tolstoi, 
who  v^ished  to  renew  the  fight  on  the  morrow,  fell 

A  drawn 

battle  back  during  the  night.  In  the  face  of  this  volun- 
tary retreat  of  the  enemy,  the  weakened  French 
forces  were  yet  in  a  mood  to  fall  back  across  the 
Vistula.  On  the  day  after  the  battle.  Napoleon 
wrote:  "It  was  a  very  bloody  affair.  The  field 
of  battle  remained  in  our  hands.  Though  a  great 
piany  men  were  killed  on  both  sides,  our  situation 
renders  my  loss  the  more  sensible.  .  .  It  is  pos- 
sible that  in  order  to  get  quiet  winter  quarters  I 
shall  remove  to  the  left  bank  of  the  Vistula."     To 


1807  Feb.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  191 


Josephine,  Napoleon  wrote:  "I  send  you  one  line,  ^fp^'^o^'s 
my  love.  You  must  have  been  very  anxious.  !"''''■ 
have  beaten  the  enemy  in  a  memorable  battle,  but 
it  has  cost  me  many  brave  men.  Corbineau  was 
killed  by  a  shell.  It  gave  me  great  pain.  Alle- 
magne  was  wounded  dangerously.  My  horseguards 
covered  themselves  with  glory.  The  country  is  cov- 
ered with  the  dead  and  wounded.  This  is  not  the 
pleasant  part  of  war.  One  suffers  and  the  soul  is 
oppressed  to  see  so  many  victims.  The  inclement 
weather  constrains  me  to  return  to  my  canton- 
ments, but  all  this  will  soon  end.  I  have  re- 
pulsed the  enemy  and  compelled  him  to  abandon 
his  projects." 

Some  idea  of  the  frightful  loss  of  human  life  on  The  losses 

°  ofEylau 

both  sides  can  be  gained  from  the  official  report  of 
Chief  Surgeon  Larrey  of  the  French  army.  In  the 
space  of  one  square  league,  the  surgeons  counted 
more  than  10,000  dead  soldiers  and  the  carcasses  of 
5,000  horses.  Forty-eight  hours  after  the  battle, 
there  were  still  upward  of  6,000  wounded  Russians 
lying  unattended  on  the  snow.  The  wounded  bad 
to  be  carried  on  long  trains  of  sledges  to  the  field 
hospitals  at  Thorn.  The  French  surgeons  observed 
with  astonishment  that  long  exposure  to  cold  did 
not  seem  to  affect  the  wounded  Russians.  The  ex- 
tent of  the  losses  was  never  accurately  stated.  A 
German  historian  estimates  them  at  40,000,  including 
subsequent  deaths  from  wound  fever.  At  the  time, 
both  Bennigsen  and  Napoleon  issued  misleading 
bulletins  to  bolster  up  their  claims  to  victory.  In 
bulletin  fifty-eight  of  La  Grande  Armee,  the  French 


192  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  Feb.  1807 

conceded  the  loss  of  1,000  killed  and  5,700  wounded. 
Of  these  1,090  were  rendered  unfit  for  further 
service.  Four  general  officers  and  six  regimental 
colonels  were  among  the  fallen.  The  loss  of  one 
French  eagle  was  admitted.  The  enemy's  losses 
were  given  as  12,000  killed,  15,000  prisoners,  45 
guns  and  18  standards.     General  Bennigsen,  in  his 

RuLian  letter  to  Czar  Alexander,  written  on  the  night  after 
the  battle,  gave  a  very  different  account.  He  as- 
sured the  Czar  that  the  enemy  had  been  completely 
defeated;  that  a  thousand  prisoners  and  twelve 
standards,  which  he  had  the  honor  to  send  to  hia 
imperial  majesty,  had  fallen  into  his  hands.  He 
had  been  attacked,  he  stated,  on  the  centre  and 
both  wings  by  Bonaparte  in  person,  who,  however, 
had  been  beaten  back  at  all  points  and  everywhere 
defeated.  Napoleon's  imperial  guards  had  attacked 
the  Eussian  centre  three  times,  and  had  as  often  been 
repulsed.  Several  columns  of  French  infantry  and 
regiments  of  cuirassiers  had  been  destroyed.  The 
loss  of  the  Russians  he  believed  might  exceed  6,000 
men,  but  that  he  might  estimate  without  exaggera- 
tion the  loss  of  the  enemy  at  more  than  12,000. 

The  plain  soldiers  who  saw  things  their  own  way 
knew  better.  Thus  a  Eussian  officer  of  dragoons, 
whose  letter  has  been  preserved,  wrote  home  from 

Common    Tilsit  three  days  after  the  battle:  "For  these  three 

Boidiers  In 

the  dark  Jays  we  have  been  asking  one  another  on  which 
side  the  victory  lay.  This  question  may  appear 
singular,  but  in  truth  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  tell 
which  of  the  two  armies  did  the  greater  mischief  to 
the  other."     One  of  Napoleon's  bulletins,  assigning 


1807  Feb.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  1^3 

the  credit  for  the  victory  to  the  Emperor's  brother- 
in-law,  Marshal  Murat,  gave  rise  to  much  discoQ- 
teat  in  the  French  ranks.  Marshals  Lannes  and 
Augereau,  the  sorely  wounded,  dared  to  give  voice 
to  these  murmurings,  and  were  sent  to  the  rear  in 
disgrace. 

One  week  after  the  battle  of  Bylau  there  was 
another  bloody  fight  at  Ostrolenka.  It  was  fought  Osfoieik* 
between  the  Prussian  General  Von  Essen  on  one 
side  and  Generals  Suchet  and  Oudineau  on  the 
other.  Thanks  to  their  better  manoeuvring,  the 
French  won  and  drove  the  Prussians  back  from 
the  banks  of  the  Narev.  Here,  too,  the  losses 
were  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  gain.  General 
Suvarov,  a  brother  of  the  famous  Eussian  field- 
marshal,  was  killed,  and  the  French  lost  General 
Campana  and  two  colonels.  The  Cossacks,  under 
their  fiery  Hetmann,  rescued  a  number  of  their 
wounded,  and  were  in  turn  taken  prisoners.  When 
Napoleon  learned  of  the  combat  and  the  casualties 
it  entailed,  he  ordered  the  fifth  army  corps  to  cease 
active  operations.  The  Russians  retreated  in  good 
order  to  Koenigsberg,  though  Murat's  cavalry  fol- 
lowed them  almost  to  the  walls  of  the  city.  Under 
stress  of  the  severe  winter  weather,  both  armies 
went  into  cantonments  and  waited  for  spring. 

The  ninth  and  tenth  corps  of  the  French  army 
alone  continued  their  operations  in  Silesia.     With 
the  aid  of  the  Poles,  the  Piussians  were  driven  into 
their  strongholds.     The  French  invested  Sweidnitz,  Prussian 
Kosel,    Neiss,    Graudenz,    Colberg,    Stralsund   and  j'^^^^^l^g^ 
Dantzig.     Had  Bennigsen  been  equal  to  a  diversion 

XlXth  Century— Vol.  1—9 


194  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Feb.  180? 

with  his  Russian  armj  at  Koenigsberg,  eSective 
siege  operatioas  against  these  cities  would  have 
been  impossible.  Without  such  interference,  Mar- 
shal Lefebvre  was  able  to  concentrate  30,000 
men  around  Dantzig.  At  the  same  time  Napoleon 
ordered  new  levies  of  troops  from  Poland,  Ger- 
many, Holland,  Spain  and  France.  Little  Switzer- 
land even  had  to  furnish  16,000  men  under  pain  of 
forfeiture  of  all  her  treaty  rights.  An  excuse  for 
these  additional  armaments  was  furnished  by  the 
attitude  of  England.  The  successful  resistance  of 
the  Turks  to  Michaelson's  Russian  army  on  the 
Danube,  induced  England  to  make  a  demonstration 
in  that  direction.  Admiral  Duckworth's  fleet  was 
flilt  be-     called  from  the  coast  of  Spain  to  the  Dardanelles 

fore  C  'D-  . 

Btantinopie  to  givc  Weight  to  the  rcmonstrancc  of  Ambassador 
Arbuthnot  in  Constantinople.  On  February  28, 
Arbuthnot  insisted  on  the  dismissal  of  General 
Sebastiani,  Napoleon's  envoy  to  the  Sublime  Porte. 
On  the  Sultan's  refusal,  Arbuthnot  joined  the 
British  fleet,  and  war  was  declared.  Duckworth 
sailed  through  the  Dardanelles  and  anchored  off 
the  Sultan's  palace  in  the  Bosphorus.  The  British 
admiral  was  held  off  by  pretended  negotiations  in- 
spired by  Sebastiani.  Presently  he  found  that 
Du^ worth  ^^^^J  batteries  had  been  mounted  against  him, 
driveooff  ^JJ(JgJ.  jjjg  f^j.g  ^f  which  hc  was  compelled  to  leave 
the  Bosphorus  and  sail  once  more  through  the  Dar- 
danelles. The  British  squadron  had  to  sustain  a 
heavy  fire  from  the  strong  shore  batteries  at  the 
Straits,  aided  by  Turkish  ships  anchored  there. 
The  Turks  lost  one  line-o' -battle  ship,  four  frigates, 


1807  Feb.  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  196 

three  corvettes  and  one  brig.  The  English  suffered 
only  in  their  rigging  and  complements.  Altogether, 
forty-two  British  sailors  were  killed  and  two  hun- 
dred and  thirty-five  were  wounded.  The  British 
squadron  sailed  to  Egypt  and  took  the  city  of 
Alexandria. 

Napoleon  exulted  in  Turkey's  success.  To  th« 
Sultan  he  wrote:  "You  have  shown  yourself  a 
worthy  descendant  of  Selim  and  Soliman.  Yoa 
have  asked  me  for  officers:  I  send  them  to  you. 
Generals,  officers,  soldiers,  arms  of  every  kind, 
even  money,  I  place  at  your  disposal.  You  have 
only  to  ask.  Ask  plainly,  and  whatever  you  ask 
shall  be  sent  forthwith.  Make  friends  with  the 
Shah  of  Persia,  who  is  also  the  enemy  of  the  Eus- 
sians.  Persuade  him  to  remain  firm,  and  vigorously 
to  attack  the  common  enemy."     Before  Selim  III.  suitan 

Selim 

could  enter  fully  into  these  schemes  he  was  deprived  deposed 
of  his  throne   by  a  palace   revolution.     The  Jani- 
zaries  raised   his   nephew,    Mustapha   lY.,    to   the 
throne. 

It  was  now  the  immediate  object  of  Napoleon  to 
secure  complete  command  of  the  countries  he  had 
overrun.     To  do  this  he  had  to  reduce  the  Prussian  Prussian 

slroug- 

fortresses  that  still  held  out  on  the  Vistula  and  J^g^J^^^^j 
the  Oder.  The  Russians,  determined  to  harass  the 
French  in  every  way,  engaged  them  in  a  series  of 
sharp  actions.  On  February  26,  a  Russian  detach- 
ment of  10,000  marched  against  Braunsberg,  the 
most  advanced  of  the  French  cantonments.  General 
Dupont  of  Bernadotte's  division  met  the  Russian 
attack.     At  the  point  of  the  bayonet  the  Cossacks 


196  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Feb.  1807 

were  repulsed  and  thrown  over  the  river  Parsarge. 
Two  thousand  of  them  were  taken  prisoners,  with 
sixteen  guns.  On  February  24,  Baron  Korff  next 
occupied  the  town  of  Peterswald  with  a  Russian 
column.  General  Leger  Belair,  hastening  thither, 
attacked  the  town  at  daybreak  and  defeated  the 
Russians  in  a  sharp  fight.  General  KorfiE  sur- 
rendered with  his  staff  and  a  full  battalion  of 
his  guard.  After  the  affairs  of  Peterswald  and 
Braunsberg,  Napoleon  moved  his  headquarters 
from  Osterode  to  the  Castle  of  Finkenstein,  that  he 
^Avtn^ir  miglit  be  nearer  to  Graudenz  and  Dantzig.  Some 
campaign  .^^^  ^^  ^^^  hardships  of  the  winter  there  may  be 
gathered  from  this  letter  of  Napoleon  to  his  brother 
Joseph  at  Naples:  "The  officers  of  our  staff  have 
not  undressed  for  these  two  months,  and  some  not 
for  four  months  past.  I  myself  have  been  a  fort- 
night without  taking  off  my  boots.  We  are  amid 
snow  and  mud.  Without  wine  or  bread,  eating 
potatoes  and  mule  flesh,  making  long  marches  and 
countermarches  without  any  kind  of  comfort,  we 
fight  in  general  with  bayonets  and  under  grape. 
The  wounded  have  to  be  carried  in  sledges,  ex- 
posed to  the  cold,  two  hundred  miles  away." 
While  thus  engaged.  Napoleon  received  the  news 
of  the  death  of  his  little  nephew,  Charles  Napoleon, 
a  son  of  Louis  and  Hortense,  whom  he  had  wished 
to  make  his  heir.  The  siege  of  the  Prussian  cities 
was  pursued  with  relentless  vigor.  Troops  were 
brought  from  as  far  as  Spain,  and  heavy  artillery 
sturd  was  dragged  over  hundreds  of  miles.  Graudenz  and 
ofcoiberg  Colbcrg,   uudcr  the  gallant  command  of  L' Homme 


1807  Spring  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  197 

de  Courvi^re,  a  French  refugee,  and  Gneisenau,  an 
old-fashioned  Prussian  soldier,  held  out  until  the 
bitter  end.  Count  Kalkreuth,  with  the  flower  of 
the  Prussian  army  at  Dantzig,  showed  himself  less 
sturdy.  The  old  Ilanseatic  city  was  defended  by 
double  rows  of  fortifications,  ditches  and  inunda- 
tions, with  the  Fort  of  Weichselmunde  on  the  other 
side  of  the  harbor.  The  garrison  numbered  18,000 
men.  On  March  8,  the  siege  was  begun,  and  wasxhesieg* 
conducted  through  sixty-iive  days  under  the  skil- 
ful leadership  of  the  French  military  engineers 
Chasseloup  and  Larevoisiere.  On  April  24,  the 
French,  having  assembled  all  their  artillery,  com- 
menced the  bombardment.  After  sustaining  a 
heavy  fire  for  several  days,  the  garrison  made 
a  sortie,  but  were  beaten  back  in  three  successive 
attempts  to  rush  the  French  parallels.  King  Wil- 
liam of  Prussia  and  Grandduke  Constantine  deter- 
mined to  relieve  the  city  by  sea.  Accordingly,  two 
Russian  divisions  embarked  in  a  fleet  of  sixty-six 
transports  at  Pillau,  Napoleon,  hearing  of  this, 
sent  his  reserves  under  Lannes  to  reinforce  Le- 
febvre  before  Dantzig.  By  a  forced  march  from 
Marieaburg,  the  French  managed  to  arrive  on  the 
day  that  the  Russians  were  landed  at  Weichsel- 
munde.     On    May    15,    the    Russians    attacked    a  Futile 

"^  '  Russian 

French  detachment  of  General  Schramm  that  was *^'^®''®'**°" 
holding  a  fort  opposite  Weichselmunde.  In  a  hard 
fight  lasting  several  hours,  the  Russians  were  thrown 
back  into  Weichselmunde  by  a  combined  attack  of 
the  French  forces  under  Marshals  Lefebvre  and 
Lannes.     Simultaneously  with  this  stroke  at  Dant- 


198  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Spring  1807 

zig,  the  whole  length  of  the  Kussian  line  facing 
Napoleon  demonstrated  against  the  French  out- 
posts stationed  on  the  AUe,  Parsarge,  Vistula, 
!Narev,  Boug,  and  at  Ostrolenka.  They  were 
repulsed  at  all  points.  The  British  brigantine 
"Dauntless,"  which  attempted  to  sail  into  the 
harbor  of  Dantzig  with  Kussian  and  Prussian  offi- 
cers aboard,  came  under  the  fire  of  the  French 
batteries  and  musketry,  and  had  to  surrender.  An 
attack  on  the  strong  French  post  at  Pultusk,  under- 
taken by  a  column  of  6,000  Russians  under  General 
Turkov,  likewise  failed.  On  April  19,  the  French 
proceeded  with  all  their  forces  to  make  a  combined 
assault  on  Dantzig.  In  the  face  of  this  movement, 
Dantzig     General  Kalkreuth  agreed  to  capitulate  the  city  on 

capitulates  "  -^  ' 

condition  that  the  whole  garrison  be  paroled  with 
all  the  honors  of  war.  On  May  27,  the  Prussians 
marched  out  of  the  city  nine  thousand  strong,  with 
General  Kalkreuth  at  their  head.  All  the  rich 
stores  and  eight  hundred  pieces  of  artillery  fell  to 
the  French.  Napoleon  was  able  to  distribute  one 
million  bottles  of  wine  among  his  soldiers.  The 
Russian  garrison  at  Weichselmunde  followed  suit 
with  a  surrender  at  discretion.  The  fleet  that  had 
brought  them  escaped  to  Pillau  with  General  Ka- 
minskoi,  the  Russian  lieutenant-general.  Owing 
to  the  advance  of  a  Swedish  army  under  General 
von  Essen,  and  an  English  expedition  under  Gen- 
itratsund  eral  Clinton,  the  siege  of  Stralsund  had  to  be 
raised  by  the  French.  They  were  forced  to  evacu- 
ate Swedish  Pomerania.  During  their  retreat,  the 
French   lost  3,000   prisoners,   among   them   twenty 


1807  Spring  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  199 

officers.  The  Swedes  pursued  so  hotly  that  they 
extended  their  line  too  far,  and  were  caught  at  a  dis- 
advantage after  crossing  the  river  Pirne,  Marshal 
Mortier  suddenly  turned  on  them  with  his  division 
and  seized  the  bridges.  Two  Swedish  posts  were 
overthrown  and  a  third  column  under  General 
Cardell  was  cut  off.  General  Kronfeld,  a  Swedish 
commander-in-chief,  was  wounded  by  grape-shot. 
The  next  day  a  detached  column  was  overwhelmed 
at  Neckarmunde,  and  another  Swedish  post  at  Dem- 
nin  was  captured.  Seventeen  hundred  prisoners 
were  taken,  together  with  seven  guns.  The  Swedes 
had  to  fall  back  over  the  Pirne.  General  Kronfeld, 
finding  himself  at  the  mercy  of  the  French,  entered  forced  to 

a  truce 

into  an  armistice,  by  which  the  Swedes  bound  them- 
selves not  to  give  further  succor  to  the  allies.  On 
April  29,  it  was  agreed  between  Von  Essen  and 
Marshal  Mortier  that  the  truce  should  hold  for 
one  month.  The  King  of  Sweden,  on  news  of  this, 
hastened  to  Stralsund.  General  Kronfeld,  who  con- 
cluded the  first  truce,  had  to  resign  his  commission. 
But  General  Yon  Essen  was  made  Governor-General 
of  Pomerania  and  the  terms  remained  in  force. 

After  the  opening  of  spring,  when  the  ice  of  the 
rivers  had  melted,  and  the  roads  became  passable, 
Bennigsen  grew  restless  in  his  intrenched  camp  at 
Heilsberg,  near  Koenigsberg.  He  gave  up  his  wise 
policy  of  harassing  the  French  advance  lines  and  ^"y'^''* 
took  the  offensive.  As  once  before,  he  could  not 
resist  risking  a  descent  upon  Ney's  exposed  posi- 
tion. Ney's  corps  occupied  an  isolated  advance 
post  at  Gutstadt  in  the  midst  of  screening  forests. 


200  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  June  ,807 

On  June  5,  the  Eassians  suddenly  advanced  on  sev- 
eral points  at  once.  Two  of  these  attacks,  at  Span- 
dau  and  Lomitten,  were  only  feints  to  hold  off  the 
detachments  of  Bernadotte  and  Soult,  but  the  third 
at  Bergfried  was  a  bold  manoeuvre  to  cut  off  Ney's 
corps  from  the  rest  of  the  French  army.  The  Rus- 
sian  columns   under   Sacken   and   Gortshakov  did 

cilver  their  part  so  clumsily  that  ISej  was  able  to  beat  a 
steady  retreat,  contesting  point  by  point  until  he 
reached  Deppen.  There,  in  a  masterly  rear  action, 
he  made  his  way  across  the  Parsarge. 

Having  lost  this  battle,  the  Russians  had  to  retro- 
grade in  their  turn.  The  bulk  of  the  French  army 
was  marching  to  drive  them  back,  and  their  right 
was  already  outflanked.  Bennigsen  fell  back  on 
his  camp  at  Heilsberg,  where   he  lay  strongly  in- 

Battieof     trenched  on  both  sides  of  the  Alle.     Here  he  re- 

Heilsburg  .ii  r\  -r  ^/^1 

solved  to  give  battle.  On  June  10,  the  advance 
troops  of  Soult,  Lannes,  Davoust  and  Murat's 
cavalry  debouched  before  the  camp.  They  did 
not  advance  to  the  attack  until  late  that  evening. 
Soult's  corps  was  the  first  to  assail.  It  was  beaten 
back  by  a  murderous  fire  from  the  Russian  trenches. 
The  successive  assaults  of  Murat  and  Lannes  fared 
no  better.  General  LeGrand,  who  threw  one  of  his 
regiments  into  a  redoubt,  was  so  overwhelmed  with 
grape  that  he  had  to  give  up  his  advantage.  The 
fight  lasted  far  into  the  night.  At  last  the  French 
gave  it  up.  The  next  morning  it  was  found  that 
nearly  10,000  Frenchmen  had  fallen  before  the  Rus- 
sian trenches.  Soult's  corps  in  particular  suffered 
enormous    losses.      The    Russian    casualties    were 


1807 June  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  201 

comparatively  light.  Napoleon  abandoned  further 
frontal  attacks  on  Heilsberg,  and  started  to  oat- 
flank  Bennigsen  and  make  a  rush  for  Koenigsberg. 
To  do  so  he  had  to  risk  seeing  his  communications 
cut  off,  but  he  reckoned  rightly,  for  when  Bennig- 
sen learned  that  the  French  were  streaming  past  his 
flanks,  he  burned  all  his  bridges  over  the  Alle  and 
broke  up  camp  at  Heilsberg.  Both  armies  made  for 
Koenigsberg,  descending  the  river  on  either  bank. 
For  three  days  they  marched  thus  in  parallel  col- 
umns. The  Prussians  under  L'Estocque  reached  The  race 
Koenigsberg  first,  though  harassed  on  their  flank  nigsberg 
by  the  vanguards  of  Murat  and  Davoust.  Behind 
these  marshals  came  the  divisions  of  Soult  and 
Lannes,  followed  in  turn  by  the  corps  of  Mortier, 
Ney,  and  Napoleon's  guard.  Bernadotte's  division, 
under  the  temporary  command  of  General  Victor, 
brought  up  the  French  rear.  Napoleon's  only  de- 
sire was  to  take  Koenigsberg  before  Bennigsen 
could  find  refuge  there.  The  prospect  for  this  was 
fair,  since  the  Eussians,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Alle,  were  marching  on  a  road  that  followed  all 
the  windings  of  the  river.  Bennigsen,  on  the  other 
hand,  could  count  on  reaching  Koenigsberg  in  time 
to  prevent  a  premature  capitulation  of  that  city  by 
the  Prussians.  Napoleon  felt  no  apprehensions  that 
his  long-drawn-out  column  might  be  attacked  en 
route,  since  the  Eussians  to  do  so  were  bound  to 
cross  the  river.  Yet  Napoleon  took  the  precaution 
to  order  Lannes's  troops  to  cover  Friedland  and  priediand 
Wehlau,  the  only  points  at  which  the  Eussians  objective 
could  cross  for  an  attack.     Bennigsen,  too,  had  his 


202 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE 


June  1807 


Time 
lost  by 


eye  on  those  points.  He  feared  that  the  French,  in 
their  turn,  might  there  attack  his  left  flank  and  cat 
him  off  from  the  Pregei  and  Koenigsberg.  By 
crossing  first,  he  hoped  he  might  catch  the  long- 
extended  French  line  unawares,  and  roll  up  Lannes's 
vanguard  upon  the  rest  of  the  army. 

On  the  evening  of  June  13,  a  strong  detachment 
of  Cossacks  crossed  the  river,  and  riding  into  Fried- 
land  drove  out  an  advance  outpost  of  French  hus- 
sars, who  had  ridden  into  the  town.  At  three 
o'clock  in  the  morning  the  Russians  crossed  the 
river.  So  much  time  was  spent  in  marching  the 
JBusstans  various  columns  over  the  bridges,  that  half  of 
the  Russian  artillery  was  left  behind.  As  a  con- 
sequence, Bennigsen's  first  attack,  instead  of  over- 
whelming Lannes's  detached  division  by  one  stroke, 
was  carried  out  but  feebly.  A  fraction  of  the  Rus- 
sian army  only  came  into  play,  and  Lannes  waa 
able  to  prolong  the  fight.  The  French  veterans 
hastily  intrenched  themselves  at  Posthenen,  and 
fought  like  lions  against  overwhelming  odds.  Mar- 
shal Lannes,  recognizing  the  danger  of  the  posi- 
tion, sent  despatch  after  despatch  to  the  Emperor, 
ten  miles  away.  Napoleon  thought,  at  first,  that 
the  attack  on  Lannes  was  merely  a  Russian 
demonstration  to  safeguard  the  river  crossing 
against  the  French.  He  could  not  believe  Ben- 
nigsen  capable  of  jeopardizing  the  whole  of  his 
army  in  such  a  place.  Yet  he  sent  orders  to  all 
the  nearest  columns,  marching  parallel  with  him, 
/  to  press  on  to  Friedland.  While  he  hastened  to 
the  scene  with  the  old  guard,  Ney's  division  and 


Lauues's 

strong 

stand 


1807  June  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  203 

« 

Mortier's  corps,  with  Grouchy's  Polish  cavalry 
had  already  come  to  Lannes's  assistance  and  es- 
tablished themselves  at  Heinrichsdorf.  There  they 
were  hard  pressed.  The  Russians  bore  in  on  the 
French  at  every  point.  It  was  afternoon  when  the 
Emperor  with  his  staff  galloped  into  Posthenen. 
General  Oudinot,  his  face  black  with  powder,  rode 
up  on  his  bleeding  horse  and  cried,  "Make  haste, 
sire!  My  grenadiers  are  at  the  last  point."  Napo- 
leon rode  up  to  the  crest  of  the  hill  and  overlooked 
the  field.  When  he  saw  the  Russians  hemmed  in 
by  a  bend  of  the  river,  and  thought  of  his  own 
divisions  marching  np  on  every  side,  a  gleam  of 
joy  lighted  up  his  features.  "This  is  the  14th 
of  June,"  he  said;  "the  anniversary  of  Marengo." 
Then  he  dictated  his  dispositions  for  the  battle  as  Fnediaad 
he  would  have  done  at  the  beginning  of  the  combat. 
It  was  in  reality  a  second  battle  that  was  about  to 
begin.  One  of  his  officers  ventured  to  suggest  a 
postponement  of  the  attack  until  all  the  French 
troops  had  arrived.  "No,  no!"  retorted  Napoleon, 
"one  does  not  catch  an  enemy  twice  in  such  a 
scrape."  Lannes  and  Mortier  were  ordered  to  re- 
tain their  central  position,  with  Murat  and  Bes- 
siere's  cavalry  divisions  on  their  left.  Ney's  corps 
pushed  up  on  the  right,  supported  by  General  Victor 
and  the  imperial  guards.  As  Marshal  Ney  wheeled 
on  his  horse  to  assume  command  of  the  French  right 
flank,  Napoleon  grasped  him  by  the  arm.  "There 
is  the  goal,"  he  said,  pointing  to  Friedland.  "Make 
for  it  without  a  look  behind  you.  Break  into  that 
Russian  mass,  whatever  the  cost.     Seize  the  towa 


204  A   HISTORY  OF   THE  June  isor 

and  hold  the  bridges.     Never  mind  what  happens 
on  your  right,  on  the  left,  or  in  the  rear;   i  and 
my  army  will  attend  to  the  rest." 
Russian         jNJey  went  to  carrv  out  his  desperate  attack.     In 

centre  •'  ''  ^ 

byNey*^  plain  sight  of  the  army  he  led  his  men  straight  into 
the  Russian  centre.  As  Napoleon  caught  sight  of 
him  galloping  proudly  at  the  head  of  his  troops,  he 
exclaimed,  "Behold,  there  goes  our  lion!"  Ney's 
vanguard  was  first  engaged  by  a  horde  of  Russian 
Cossacks,  but  Latour-Maubourg  rushed  in  with  his 
dragoons  and  drove  them  back.  At  a  mill-pond 
close  to  the  walls  of  Friedland,  Ney's  advancing 
column  was  met  by  a  corps  of  Alexander's  impe- 
rial guards,  the  choicest  troops  of  the  Russian  army. 
They  charged  the  French  with  their  bayonets  and 
crumpled  up  Brisson's  division.  His  regiments  fell 
back  on  the  other  brigades,  and  Ney's  entire  col- 
umn wavered  and  fell  back.  General  Dupont  saw 
the  danger,  and  rushed  his  reserves  through  Ney's 
broken  lines.  The  Russian  guards  were  stopped 
in  their  onslaught,  and  driven  back  on  Friedland. 

Ney's        Ney  rallied  his  trooos,  and  with   his  united  forces 

brilliant  -^  * 

charge  stormed  the  flaming  town.  The  Russians  were  cut 
down  or  thrown  into  the  river,  and  the  bridges  were 
burned.  Prince  Gortshakov,  commanding  the  Rus- 
sian right,  now  found  himself  between  the  victori- 
ous French  troops  at  Friedland  and  the  divisions 
of  Lannes  and  Mortier  in  the  centre.  Retreat  across 
the  bridges  was  cut  off.  Fighting  desperately  all 
the  way  he  led  off  his  troops  along  the  bank  of  the 
river,  while  his  Cossacks  hunted  for  fording  places. 
At  the  moment  of  Ney's  assault  upon  Friedland, 


1807 June  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  206 

Napoleon  ordered  thirty-six  guns  of  Sernarmont'a 
artillery  to  cover  the  French  advance  with  a  steady 
hail  of  grape  and  canister.  He  led  the  second  line 
at  the  head  of  his  guards  and  Victor's  division. 
Marat's  cavalry  with  Bessi^res's  cuirassiers  charged 
into  the  Russian  columns  and  utterly  overwhelmed 
them.  Several  thousand  Russians  were  caught  on 
this  side  of  the  river,  and  found  themselves  at  the 
mercy  of  the  French  crossfire.  Others  were  tram- 
pled under  foot  by  the  rush  of  the  cavalry  squad- 
ron, or  were  drowned  in  the  river.  Several  regi- 
ments surrendered.  When  night  fell,  the  French 
had  won  at  all  points,  Napoleon  had  achieved  an- 
other decisive  battle,  worthy  not  only  of  Marengo, 
but  of  Austerlitz  and  Jena  as  well. 
The  Russians  lost  at  Friedland  nearly  20,000  men  Losses  of 

''riedland 

in  killed  and  wounded.  The  French  lost  scarcely 
half  that  number.  As  usual  the  official  bulletins 
vied  with  each  other  in  misrepresentations.     Ben- 

planation 


Bennig- 

nigsen,  in  his  letter  to  the  Czar,  pretended  that  he  ^1°'^  ex- 


had  only  sent  his  infantry  to  take  possession  of 
Friedland,  so  that  his  troops  might  march  in  se- 
curity. The  infantry  was  attacked,  he  supported 
them,  and  thus  was  drawn  into  battle.  He  gave 
his  total  losses  as  8,000,  with  sixteen  pieces  of  can- 
non. Napoleon's  bulletin  was  in  his  best  vein: 
"Soldiers,  on  the  fifth  day  of  June  we  were  at-tttf""'* 
tacked  in  our  cantonments  by  the  Russian  army. 
The  enemy  mistook  the  cause  of  our  inactivity.  He 
perceived  too  late  that  our  repose  was  that  of  the 
lion.  In  a  campaign  of  ten  days  we  have  taken  a 
hundred  and   twenty  guns,   seven  flags,   and  have 


206  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  June  1807 

killed,  wounded  or  taken  prisoners  60,000  Russians. 
We'  have  taken  from  the  enemy  all  his  magazines, 
his  hospitals,  ambulances,  the  fortress  of  Koenigs- 
berg,  with  300  vessels,  which  were  in  that  port  laden 
with  all  kinds  of  military  stores,  and  160,000  mus- 
kets, which  England  was  sending  to  arm  our  ene- 
mies. From  the  banks  of  the  Vistula  we  have  come 
"with  the  speed  of  the  eagle  to  those  of  the  Niemea. 
At  Austerlitz  you  celebrated  the  anniversary  of  my 
coronation.  At  Friedland  you  have  worthily  cele- 
brated the  battle  of  Marengo." 

After  the  battle  General  Victor  was  elevated  to 

the  rank  of  Marshal.      Koenigsberg  was  occupied 

by  the  troops  of  Marshal  Soult.     The  strongholds 

forts '  °    of  Neisse,   Glatz  and  Kosel  capitulated,  one  after 

Burrender 

another.     Only  Graudenz  and  Memel  still  held  out 
fh^.2L     for  Prussia.     The  war  was  over. 

tiie  war 

On  his  entry  into  Tilsit,  a  little  town  on  the  river 
Niemen,  Napoleon  received  a  letter  from  the  Czar 
of  Russia.  Alexander  proposed  an  armistice  until 
he  could  arrive  for  personal  conference.  Marshal 
Kalkreuth,  on  behalf  of  the  Prussian  army,  asked 
for  the  same.  The  truce  was  granted.  The  first 
interview  between  the  emperors  was  appointed  for 
June  25. 

On  the  appointed  day  Napoleon  ordered  three 
rafts,  richly  carpeted  and  surmounted  by  splendid 
pavilions,  fluttering  with  flags,  to  be  moored  in  mid- 
stream. The  two  armies  were  drawn  up  on  the 
shores  of  the  Niemen.  At  the  stroke  of  one,  can- 
nons roared  and  regimental  bands  played,  as  each 
Emperor,    accompanied    by  a  few  officers,   stepped 


1807  June  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  20? 

into  a  boat  on  his  own  side  of  the  river.  The 
imperial  suites,  gorgeously  apparelled,  followed  ^g'^at'lfuit 
in  other  boats.  The  main  raft  was  intended  only 
for  Napoleon  and  Alexander.  Napoleon  reached 
the  raft  first,  and  immediately  crossed  it  to  receive 
Alexander  stepping  from  his  boat.  In  the  sight  of 
the  armies  the  two  Emperors  embraced.  A  multi- 
tudinous shout  arose  from  the  soldiers  drawn  up 
on  either  bank.  The  first  words  which  Alexander 
uttered  were:  "I  hate  the  English  as  much  as  you 
d'b.  I  am  ready  to  second  you  in  all  your  enterprises 
against  them."  "In  that  case,"  replied  Napoleon, 
"everything  will  be  readily  arranged  and  peace  is 
already  made."  So  much  for  Napoleon's  own  ac- 
count of  the  interview.  It  lasted  two  full  hours. 
Certain  it  is  that  Napoleon,  by  his  charm  of  man- 
ner, fascinated  the  youthful  Czar.  In  later  years 
Alexander  said:  "Never  did  I  love  any  one  as  I 
loved  that  man."  It  was  agreed  between  them  to 
neutralize  the  town  of  Tilsit,  so  that  they  might 
meet  frequently  and  at  their  leisure.  As  Napoleon 
wrote  to  Alexander  in  one  of  his  notes  at  that  time, 
it  was  his  intention  "to  pass  in  one  moment  from 
open  war  to  the  most  friendly  relations."  Accord- 
ingly the  two  Emperors  met,  dined  together,  enter- 
tained one  another,  and  reviewed  the  French,  clad 
in  each  other's  insignia.  William  III.  of  Prussia 
hastened  to  Tilsit  anxious  to  plead  the  cause  of  his 
own  country.  He  was  regarded  as  something  of  a 
marplot.  Queen  Louise,  who  came  later,  cut  a  very 
diflierent  figure.   "The  Queen  of  Prussia,"  said  Na- Queen 

°  Louise  ar- 

poleon,  "in  spite  of  my  address  and  utmost  efforts,  "v^'* 


208  A    HISTORY    OF   THE  July  1807 

constantly  led  the  conversation.     She  returned  at 

pleasure  to  her  subject  and  directed  it  as  she  chose, 

Queen        but  Still  with  SO  much  tact  and  delicacy  that  it  was 

Louise 

pleads  for  impossible  to  take  offence.     Had  she  arrived  earlier, 

Prussia  r  ' 

it  might  have  had  much  influence  upon  the  result 
of  our  negotiations.  Happily  she  did  not  make  her 
appearance  until  all  was  settled.  It  is  plain  that 
she  has  been  the  real  sovereign  of  Prussia  for  the 
last  fifteen  years."  Queen  Louise  made  a  strong 
effort  to  have  Napoleon  withdraw  some  of  the  hard 
conditions  imposed  upon  Prussia.  When  she  found 
that  she  had  failed,  she  said  to  Napoleon:  "How 
much  I  should  admire  you,  sire,  were  you  as  mag- 
nanimous as  you  are  powerful." 

Later,  when  he  had  handed  her  into  the  carriage, 
she  burst  into  tears. 

Napoleon's  report  of  the  Czar's  confession  of  re- 
sentment against  England  was  not  inherently  im- 
probable. There  was  ground  for  resentment,  for 
the  reason  that  the  British  Ministry  had  failed  to 
pay  Russia  the  subsidy  of  £6,000,000  which  it  had 
Settle-       arranted  to  Austria.     Apart  from  this  there  was  a 

ments  of      "  r 

'^'^"'  well-defined  movement  in  Russia  for  the  annexa- 
tion of  Finland,  then  possessed  by  the  King  of  Swe- 
den, one  of  England's  allies.  Napoleon  readily 
entered  into  this,  and  also  agreed  to  leave  Russian 
Poland  under  the  yoke  of  Russia.  Only  Prussian 
Poland  with  Warsaw  and  Posen  were  incorporated 
into  the  federation  of  the  Rhine,  while  Russia  ac- 
quired the  former  Prussian  province  of  Bialistok. 
With  the  exception  of  dismantled  Prussia,  all  Ger- 
many entered  into  the  alliance  with  Erance.     The 


1807  July  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  209 

King  of  Saxony,  as  a  reward  for  his  complete 
change  of  front,  received  the  new  duchj  of  War- 
saw, and  was  elevated  to  the  rank  of  king.  Hesse, 
Brunswick,  and  all  former  Prussian  provinces  west 
of  the  Elbe  were  molded  into  the  new  kingdom  of 
Westphalia,  which  was  given  to  Napoleon's  brother  Kiiis^t 

.  -11  Westphalia 

Jerome.  Prussia  retained  only  one-half  of  her  for- 
mer territory,  with  but  six  million  subjects.  She 
had  to  agree  to  pay  an  indemnity  of  twenty  million 
francs.  Her  army  was  restricted  to  60,000  men. 
Under  the  new  arrangement  her  frontier  lines  leftf^omof 
her  a  prey  to  French  invasion  from  the  West.  The^''"'*'^ 
city  of  Dantzig  benefited  by  the  rearrangement  in 
so  far  as  it  was  restored  to  the  rank  of  a  free  city. 
Alexander  lost  practically  nothing.  He  agreed  to 
evacuate  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  and  gave  formal 
recognition  to  the  new-fledged  royal  titles  of  Napo- 
leon's three  brothers.  For  the  future,  the  two  Em- 
perors made  some  sweeping  secret  arrangements, 
Turkey  was  to  be  despoiled  of  Montenegro  and  the 
Ionic  isles.  Sweden,  Denmark  and  Portugal  were 
to  be  treated  as  enemies  if  they  did  not  agree  to  join 
the  continental  blockade  against  England.  In  case  ^"J^^^"*^ 
the  King  of  Sweden  clung  to  England,  as  was  to®"^"^ 
be  foreseen,  Finland  was  to  be  wrested  from  him 
forthwith  and  incorporated  as  a  Russian  province. 
Alexander  bound  himself  to  act  as  an  ally  of  France 
against  England,  if  peace  were  refused  by  that  power. 
The  peace  of  Tilsit  was  fully  ratified  on  July  9,  in  a 
final  convention  at  Koenigsberg.  Peace  with  Prus- 
Bia  was  formally  declared  and  terms  were  made  for 
a  French  evacuation  of  Pomerania  and  Silesia,  after 


210  A     HISTORY    OF     THE  Summer  180r 

Prussia  sbould  have  begun  the  payments  of  her  war 
indemnity. 
NapoieoD        JNapoleon  returned  to  France.     He  was  reoeived 

returns  to 

France  with  the  roar  of  cannon,  and  once  more  became  the 
object  of  the  most  extravagant  adulation.  The  Pres- 
ident of  the  French  Court  of  Appeals  delivered  aa 
address  of  welcome,  in  the  course  of  which  he  said: 
"Our  victorious  Emperor  has  never  desired  any- 
thing but  peace.  He  has  ever  presented  the  olive 
branch  to  those  who  have  forced  upon  him  the  lau- 
rels of  victory.  Napoleon  is  above  human  history. 
He  belongs  to  the  heroic  age.  He  is  above  mere 
admiration."  Napoleon  in  turn  said:  "Let  us  now 
turn  to  trade  and  manufacture.  I  have  had  enough 
of  the  trade  of  General.  I  shall  now  resume  with 
you  that  of  First  Minister.  I  will  recommence  my 
great  reviews  of  affairs,  which  it  is  time  to  substitute 
for  my  great  reviews  of  armies."  The  state  of  pub- 
lic affairs  in  France  warranted  such  an  utterance. 
The  new  armaments  called  for  by  Napoleon's  pro- 
longed campaign  in  Prussia  had  caused  consterna- 
tion among  the  French  peasants.  The  expense  of 
the  war  had  sapped  the  resources  of  the  country 
both  in  products  and  in  men.  The  stoppage  of 
commerce  by  the  continental  blockade  struck  all 
branches  of  production  sterile.  Public  credit  was 
shaken  and  French  consols  were  at  an  alarmingly 
Need  of  ^^^  ^^^'  Napoleou  Called  a  Council  of  State  to 
reforms  inquire  into  the  causes  of  the  evil,  and  the  proposed 
remedies.  The  suggestion  to  refurnish  the  palaces 
of  bishops  and  prefectures,  so  as  to  give  work  to  the 
poor,  did  not  commend  itself  to  Napoleon.     Yet  he 


i6or  Summer  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  211 

ordered  his  apartments  in  the  Tuileries  to  be  refur- 
nished, and  cautioned  his  wife  and  sisters  to  confine 
their  purchases  to  the  public  workshop  for  military 
supplies.  He  decreed  that  600,000  francs  a  month  nondition 
should  be  advanced  to  the  manufacturers  who  were  JjUiul"*^*^ 
in  difficulties,  on  condition  that  they  should  con-  ^^  ^^^ 
tinue  in  operation.  The  launch  of  this  loan  dcewr 
attention  to  the  country's  need  of  commerce,  for 
the  goods  thus  acquired  spoiled  on  the  hands  of  the 
State  and  had  to  be  got  rid  of.  On  the  other  hand, 
not  enough  was  manufactured  in  France  to  clothe 
even  the  army.  Thus  Bourrienne,  Napoleon's  pri- 
vate secretary,  records  in  his  diary  that  the  bulk 
of  the  French  army  was  supplied  with  shoes  and 
clothing  smuggled  into  France  Irom  England.  The 
financial  distress  spread  to  the  neighboring  coun- 

Distress  ia 

tries.  Holland  was  hard  hit.  Louis  Bonaparte,  Holland 
reigning  there  as  king,  sided  with  his  stricken 
subjects  and  declined  to  raise  50,000  Dutch  con- 
scripts for  his  brother.  Louis,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  quick  to  raise  money  for  the  sufferers  of  Ley- 
den,  when  a  powder  ship  blew  up  in  the  harbor  of 
that  city  and  destroyed  200  houses  and  killed  150 
men,  among  them  the  celebrated  Professors  Luzac 
and  Kleit.  At  this  Napoleon  was  moved  to  wrath: 
"Have  you  so  completely  lost  your  head  as  to  forget 
what  you  owe  to  me  ?  Do  you  want  to  force  me  to 
express  my  great  displeasure  publicly?  Aid  my 
troops!  Make  a  large  levy  of  conscripts!  A  prince 
who  passes  for  good  in  the  first  year  of  his  reign  is 
a  prince  who  will  be  ridiculed  in  his  second.  When 
a  king  is  said  to  be  a  good  man  his  reign  is  unsuc- 


212 


A   HISTORY  OF   THE 


Summer  1807 


cessful.  The  first  thing  that  you  ought  to  do,  and 
that  I  require  of  you  to  do,  is  to  raise  a  subscription 
for  me." 

After  the  Peace  of  Tilsit  came  a  sharp  change' 

Immediate  ^  *=> 

peTce^  °^  for  the  better.  Confidence  was  restored  in  Paris, 
and  French  consols  rose  to  a  higher  pomt  thaa 
ever  before. 

While  things  stood  thus  in  Europe,  the  people 
of  England  were  comparatively  tranquil.  The 
danger  of  a  foreign  invasion   once   removed,  they 

Engfand  experienced  a  relief  very  similar  to  that  which, 
followed  the  destruction  of  the  Armada,  two  hun- 
dred years  before.  As  in  Elizabethan  times,  colo- 
nial conquest,  commerce  and  letters  flourished  side 
by  side.  While  Coleridge,  Wordsworth,  Moore, 
Crabbe  and  Charles  Lamb  were  giving  their  best 
works  to  the  world,  Byron,  then  still  a  lad,  was 
stirred  to  attempt  his  first  poetic  flight.  During  his 
leisure  hours  at  school  and  college  he  had  written 
occasional  verses,  which  appeared  at  Newark  in 
1807,  in  a  little  volume  entitled  "Hours  of  Idle- 
ness." Boyish  and  weak  as  these  verses  were, 
they  scarcely  deserved  the  weighty  scorn  with 
which  the  "Edinburgh  Review"  pounced  upon 
them.  Stung  in  his  pride,  Byron  retorted  with 
his  "English  Bards  and  Scotch  Reviewers,"  a 
long  poem  full  of  scathing  invective  and  satire. 
It  showed  his  contemporaries  that  this  stripling 
author  of  puny  versicles,  when  aroused,  could 
slash  about  him  with  a  pen  dipped  in  gall.  In 
this  poem,  Byron  fell  foul  of  nearly  all  the  En- 
glish  poets   of    the   day — Soumey,    ihe    poet    lau- 


Byron's 

early 

poetry 


ibo,  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  213 

rente,  Wordsworth,    Coleridge,    Scott    and    Moore. 
The  stanzas  on  Wordsworth  were  the  best. 

"Next  comes  the  dull  disciple  of  thy  school 
That  would  apostate  from  poetic  rule, 
The  simple  Wordsworth,  framer  of  a  lay 
As  soft  as  evening  in  his  favorite  May ; 
Who,  both  by  precept  and  example,  shows 
That  prose  ia  verse,  and  verse  is  merely  prose." 

For  British  commerce,  the  recent  annihilation 
of  Spanish  trade  with  the  West  Indies  and  the 
acquisition  of  the  rich  Dutch  colonies  at  Curacoa 
and  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  opened  a  flourish-  Financial 
ing  field.  Lord  Petty's  finance  reform,  undertaken  England 
early  in  the  year,  brought  about  a  total  redemption 
of  £152,348,529  in  national  debts.  The  daily  pur- 
chase of  £96,000  of  floating  stocks  alone  amounted 
to  a  redemption  of  £17,422,000,  or  a  sum  but  little 
short  of  the  whole  loan  for  the  public  service  dur- 
ing the  preceding  year.  These  financial  successes 
made  Sir  Spencer  Percival,  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  the  leader  for  the  nonce  of  the  new 
Portland  Ministry  which  had  replaced  "All  the 
Talents"  in  April.  Sir  Spencer's  mouthpiece  was 
George  Canning,  the  foreign  secretary,  who  soon 
overshadowed  his  rival.  Lord  Castlereagh.  All 
these  gentlemen  were  Tories  of  the  most  conserva- 
tive stamp.  Sydney  Smith,  who  delighted  to  ridi- 
cule them  in  his  witty  Peter  Plymley  letters,  said 
of  Percival  that  he  had  the  head  of  a  country 
parson  and  the  tongue  of  an  Old  Bailey  lawyer. 
Canning,  the  most  gifted   member  of  the  Cabinet,  Canning'a 

°  °  'change  of 

long  ago  had  turned  from  an  ardent  revolutionist''"''"'' 


214  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  June  1807 

into  a  rabid  anti-republican.  This  change  of  mind, 
coming  so  early  in  his  life,  gave  rise  to  a  Whig 
sarcasm  that  "men  had  often  been  known  to  turn 
their  coats,  but  this  was  the  first  time  that  a  boy 
had  turned  his  jacket."  By  the  time  Bonaparte 
overthrew  the  French  Republic  on  the  18t[i  Bru- 
maire,  Canning  was  in  a  mood  to  exult  in  the 
change.  "Huzza!  huzza!  huzza!"  he  wrote  to  a 
friend,  "it  is  the  lasting  ridicule  thrown  upon  all 
systems  of  democratic  equality  that  makes  the  name 
of  Bonaparte  dear  to  me.  Henceforth  republican 
and  fool  are  synonymous  terms." 

Canning  now  held  that  Napoleon's  course  ab- 
solved England  from  ordinary  rules  of  morals. 
To  fight  Bonaparte  with  his  own  weapons  had 
become  the  rallying  cry  of  Englishmen.  The  first 
acts  of  the  new  administration  showed  what  was 
Coercion  of  meant  by  this  famous  phrase.  Weak  neutral  pow- 
ers, which  yet  were  England's  rivals  in  commerce, 
were  the  first  to  suffer.  Such  were  Denmark  and 
the  United  States. 

Early  in  1807,  the  British  squadron  happened  to 
lie  off  Hampton  Roads,  in  Virginia,  watching  for 
some  French  frigates  that  had  taken  refuge  at  An- 
napolis. In  spring  a  whole  boat's  crew  of  the 
British  sloop-of-war  "Halifax"  deserted  and  made 
off  to  Norfolk.  The  commander  of  the  "Halifax" 
was  informed  that  his  men  had  enlisted  on  the 
"Chl°a-"^^ American  frigate  "Chesapeake,"  then  preparing 
for  a  cruise  to  the  Mediterranean.  The  British 
Minister  at  Washington  at  the  same  time  made 
complaint    that    three   deserters    from    the   British 


1807  June  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  216 

frigate  "Melampus"  had  enlisted  on  the  "Chesa- 
peake." The  Secretary  of  the  Navy  instituted  an 
inquiry,  and  found  that  these  men  were  native 
Americans  who  had  been  improperly  impressed  ^^  ^. 
into  British  service,  and  were,  therefore,  not  sub-fmpressed 
ject  to  reclamation.  Admiral  Berkeley,  command- 
ing the  British  North  Atlantic  Squadron,  issued  an 
order  to  all  his  captains  to  search  the  "Chesapeake" 
for  British  deserters  whenever  they  might  meet  her 
outside  of  the  three-mile  limit.  The  "Chesa- 
peake," owing  to  various  delays,  did  not  drop 
down  the  Potomac  until  June.  When  she  tried 
to  fire  the  customary  salute  while  passing  Mount 
Vernon,  it  was  found  that  her  ammunition  would 
not  fit  her  guns.  At  Hampton  Roads,  Captain 
James  Barron,  the  newly  appointed  commodore  of 
the  Mediterranean  Squadron,  assumed  command, 
and  on  June  21  the  "Chesapeake"   started  on  herapeake" 

sets  sail 

cruise.  Sailing  under  a  fair  wind,  she  passed 
the  British  cruisers  "Bellona, "  "Melampus"  and 
"Leopard"  at  Lynnhaven  Bay.  The  "Leopard" 
stood  out  to  sea  after  the  "Chesapeake."  While 
dining  in  his  cabin.  Commodore  Barron  caught  a 
glimpse  of  the  "Leopard"  through  a  porthole,  and 
remarked  that  her  movements  appeared  suspicious, 
but  that  she  could  certainly  have  nothing  to  do 
with  the  "Chesapeake."  At  half-past  three  the 
"Leopard"  came  down  before  the  wind,  and, 
rounding  to  about  half  a  cable's  length  to  wind- 
ward, hailed  the  "Chesapeake,"  and  said  she  had 
despatches  for  the  Commodore.  Barron  returned 
the   hail:    "We  will   heave  to,   and  you  can  send 


216  A    HISTORY    OF   THE  June  3807 

your  boat  alongside."  The  fact  that  the  "Leopard" 
tatio^^r  mancBuvred  to  windward  was  not  taken  exception 
to,  since  British  commanders  had  long  been  in  the 
habit  of  arrogating  unto  themselves  the  windward 
position  as  a  sort  of  maritime  right.  The  lieuteaant 
from  the  "Leopard"  came  aboard  and  delivered  to 
Commodore  Barron  a  written  copy  of  the  British 
admiral's  order  respecting  the  alleged  deserters  on 
board  the  "Chesapeake,"  with  this  note  from  his 
Britishde-  immediate  commander:  "The  captain  of  the 'Leop- 

maiid  on  ^  "^ 

peake^  ard'  wiil  not  presume  to  say  anything  in  addition 
to  what  the  commander-in-chief  has  stated,  more 
than  to  express  a  hope  that  every  circumstance  re- 
specting them  may  be  adjusted  in  a  manner  that 
the  harmony  subsisting  between  the  two  countries 
may  remain  undisturbed."  Commodore  Barron, 
after  some  reflection,  wrote  out  the  following  re- 
ply: "I  know  of  no  such  men  as  you  describe. 
The  officers  that  were  on  the  recruiting  service  for 
this  ship  were  particularly  instructed  by  the  govern- 
ment through  me  not  to  enter  any  deserters  from 
his  Britannic  Majesty's  ships,  nor  do  I  know  of  any 
being  here.     I  am  also  instructed  never  to  permit 

Com-  the  crew  of  any  ship  that  I  command  to  be  mus- 
tered  by  any  other  but  their  own  officers.  It  is 
my  disposition  to  preserve  harmony,  and  I  hope  this 
answer  to  your  despatch  will  prove  satisfactory." 
The  British  gig  pulled  away,  and  Commodore 
Barron,  after  consultation  with  Captain  Gordon, 
gave  orders  to  have  the  gun  deck  cleared.  The 
captain  of  the  "Leopard,"  as  soon  as  he  had  re- 
ceived Barron's  reply,  edged  nearer  and  hailed  the 


Barron's 
deQance 


1807 June  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  217 

"Cbesapeake":  "Commodore  Barroa,  you  mu8t  bo 
aware  of  the  necessity  I  am  unaer  ot  compiymg 
with  the  orders  of  my  commander-in-chief."  It 
was  plainly  seen  that  the  British  crew  were  at 
quarters.  Barron  repeated  the  order  to  clear  for 
action  without  drumbeat.  The  men  were  hurried 
to  their  quarters.  To  gain  time  Barron  shouted 
through  his  trumpet.  "I  do  not  hear  what  yoa 
say  I"  The  British  captain  repeated  his  hail,  and 
Barron  again  replied  that  he  did  not  understand. 
For  answer,  Captain  Humphreys  fired  a  shot  across  ^^e'cf™"* 
his  bow.  Another  shot  followed.  A  few  moments 
afterward  the  *' Leopard"  poured  her  whole  broad- 
side into  the  "Chesapeake"  at  pointblank  range. 
Commodore  Barron  was  wounded  where  he  stood 
on  the  gangplank,  but  continued  to  hail  the  "Leop- 
ard" while  his  own  men  were  getting  their  guns 
ready.  The  "Leopard's"  fire  lasted  fifteen  min- 
utes. In  all  there  were  seventy  discharges,  three 
American  sailors  were  killed,  eighteen  wounded, 
all  three  masts  badly  injured  and  twenty-two  round 
shots  entered  the  hull  of  the  "Chesapeake."  Then 
Commodore  Barron,  bleeding  from  his  wound, 
ordered  his  flag  to  be  hauled  down.     As  it  touched  peake" 

'-'  hauls  dovnt 

the  taffrail,  the  third  lieutenant  of  the  "Chesapeake"  ^erflag 
managed  to  fire  one  gun  by  means  of  a  live  coal 
which  he  brought  from  the  galley  in  his  fingers. 

The  boats  of  the  "Leopard"  came  alongside  and 
the  crew  of  the  "Chesapeake"  were  mustered  by 
the  "Leopard's"  officers.  The  three  deserters  from 
the  "Melampus"  were  taken,  and  one,  Jenkin  Rat- 
ford,  the  ringleader  of  the  British  deserters  from 

XlXth  CcuturF— Vol.  1— -10 


218  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  June  1807 

the  "Halifax,"  was  dragged  out  of  the  coal  hole. 
At  sevea  in  the  evening  the  British  officers  left  the 
ship,  and  Commodore  Barron  reported  to  the  cap- 
American  tain   of    the   "Leopard":    "I   consider   the   frigate 

Burrender  '■  " 

refused  'Chesapeake'  your  prize  and  I  am  ready  to  de- 
liver her  to  any  officers  authorized  to  receive  her." 
Captain  Humphreys  replied  immediately:  "Having 
to  the  utmost  of  my  power  fulfilled  the  instructions 
of  my  commander-in-chief,  I  have  nothing  more  to 
desire,  and  must  in  consequence  proceed  to  join  the 
remainder  of  my  squadron." 
to^the""^  Without  a  flag,  disgraced  and  humiliated,  the 
nation  "Chesapeake"  returned  to  Hampton  Eoads,  with 
her  crew  smarting  under  an  insult  that  was  never 
forgotten  or  forgiven  by  Americans.  The  American 
people  were  thoroughly  aroused.  The  citizens  of 
Norfolk,  for  want  of  anything  better,  destroyed  the 
water  casks  of  the  British  squadron.  The  mayor 
of  Norfolk  forbade  all  intercourse  with  the  British 
squadron  in  Lynnhaven  Bay.  The  British  com- 
mander retaliated  by  threatening  to  blockade  Nor- 
folk. President  Jefferson  approved  the  action  of 
Norfolk's  mayor.  He  issued  a  proclamation  begin- 
thr^tena  "^'^S  tlius:  "Hospitality  under  such  circumstances 
*"  ceases   to   be  a   duty,   and   the   continuance   of    it 

would  tend  only  to  bring  on  a  rupture  between  the 
two  nations."  The  United  States  cruiser  "Revenge" 
was  sent  to  England  with  despatches  demanding  a 
complete  disavowal,  the  restoration  of  the  impressed 
seamen  and  the  recall  of  Admiral  Berkeley.  Minis- 
ter Monroe  was  instructed  to  communicate  the  inci- 
dent to  Russia.     Congress,  as  the  only   body  em- 


1807  June  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  219 

powered  to  make  war,  was  called  into  session.  In 
regard  to  the  unfortunate  commodore,  who  was 
involved  in  this  disgrace,  an  immediate  court  of  in- 
quiry was  ordered  on  the  ''Chesapeake."  Among  / 
the  judges  sat  Captain  Decatur,  one  of  Barron's 
harshest  critics.  Commodore  Barron  was  court- 
martialled  for  neglect  of  duty  in  failing  to  prepare 
his  ship  for  action,  and  for  surrendering  without 
having  fired  a  shot.     He  was  convicted  and  sen- ''ore 

Barron 

tenced  to  suspension  from  rank  and  pay  for  five '*'^&'"^<^®** 
years.      In   later   years,    he  was  refused  an  active 
command.      In  the  end,  Commodore  Barron  chal-     ^ 
lenged  Captain  Decatur  for  his  vindictive  attitude 
toward  him  and  shot  him  dead  in  a  duel. 

The  British  captain,  on  the  other  hand,  came  out 
with  colors  flying.  Admiral  Berkeley  hastened  to 
give  him  his  formal  approval.  "So  far  as  I  am 
enabled  to  judge,"  he  wrote  in  a  letter  dated  on 
the  day  of  American  independence,  "you  have  con- 
ducted yourself  most  properly.  I  hope  you  mind 
the  public  accounts  that  have  been  published  of 
this  affair  as  little  as  I  do.  We  must  make  allow- 
ances for  the  heated  state  of  the  populace  in  a 
country  where  law  and  every  tie,  both  civil  and 
religious,  is  treated  so  lightly."  The  three  Ameri- 
can deserters  from  the  "Melampus"  were  sentenced 
to  receive  five  hundred  lashes  each.  Jenkin  Eat- 
ford,  the  British  deserter,  was  hanged  from  the 
foreyard  arm  of  his  own  ship,  the  "Halifax." 

In  England  the  people  warmly  approved  Admiral  Emgiish- 
Berkeley's  measures.  Thus  the  "Morning  Post, "  e^"''*"*- 
the  chosen  mouthpiece  of  the  British  Foreign  Office, 


220  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  July  1807 

published  this  comment:  "America  is  not  content 
with  striking  at  the  very  vitals  of  our  commercial 
existence,  she  must  also,  by  humbling  our  naval 
greatness  and  by  disputing  our  supremacy,  not  only 
lessen  us  in  our  own  estimation,  but  degrade  us  in 
the  eyes  of  Europe  and  the  world.  ...  It  will 
never  be  permitted  to  be  said  that  the  'Royal  Sov- 
ereign' has  struck  her  flag  to  a  Yankee  cock." 
And  again:  "A  few  short  months  of  war  would 
convince  their  desperate  politicians  of  the  folly  of 
measuring  the  strength  of  a  rising  but  still  infant 
and   puny  nation  with   the   colossal  power  of  the 

S™ts  British  Empire."  The  London  "Times,"  in  a 
similar  vein,  declared  that  "The  Americans  could 
not  even  send  an  ambassador  to  France — could 
hardly  pass  from  New  York  to  Staten  Island  with- 
out British  permission."  In  view  of  this  temper  of 
the  English  people,  the  British  Foreign  Office,  while 
expressing  regret  for  the  occurrence,  preferred  to 
put  off  Mr.  Monroe's  demands  for  redress  until 
popular  feeling  should  have  subsided.  For  the 
present  Mr.  Canning  had  a  far  more  pressing  enter- 
prise on  hand.  As  soon  as  the  British  Ministry 
had  been  informed  of  the  portent  of  Napoleon's  ne- 
gotiations with  Alexander  at  Tilsit  it  was  decided  to 
despatch  a  large  naval  expedition  to  Copenhagen. 

Denmark    Denmark  was  to  be  forced   away  from  an  alliance 

the  next 

Tictim  vvith  France.  On  July  26,  a  fleet  commanded  by 
Lord  Gambier  sailed  from  the  Downs.  The  expe- 
dition consisted  of  some  twenty  ships  of  the  line 
and  forty  frigates  and  transports,  carrying  27,000 
mer    under    Lord    Cathcart.      A   diplomatic   agent 


lB07Aug.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  221 

went  along,  with  instructions  to  require  the  sur- 
render  of  the  Danish  fleet  as  a  temporary  security 
for  England.  The  unfortunate  Danes,  by  reason 
of  their  enterprise  as  shippers  and  traders,  found 
themselves  between  two  millstones.  Denmark  was 
the  only  neutral  power  the  control  of  whose  ship- 
ping was  necessary  for  the  success  of  Napoleon's 
designs  against  English  commerce.  On  August  2,  Jrom^'" 
he  sent  orders  to  Bernadotte  at  Hamburg:  "If 
England  does  not  accept  the  mediation  of  Russia, 
Denmark  must  declare  war  on  England,  or  I  will 
declare  war  on  Denmark."  Bernadotte  was  ordered 
to  hold  his  troops  ready  for  an  instant  invasion  of 
Denmark.  Great  Britain's  ugly  message  to  Den- 
marls  was  intrusted  to  Jackson,  the  former  British 
Minister  to  Berlin.  This  was  the  same  Jackson 
whose  appointment  as  Minister  to  the  United  States 
had  been  opposed  by  Rufus  King,  on  account  of 
Jackson's  notorious  ill-temper.  In  obedience  to  his 
instructions,  Jackson  sought  out  the  Danish  Prince 
Royal  at  Kiel,  and  had  a  stormy  interview  with 
Bernstorff.  The  Danish  Prime  Minister  treated  the 
British  demands  as  a  direct  insult  to  Denmark. 
The  Prince  Royal  likewise  refused  to  countenance 
British  interference  with  Denmark's  international 
relations.  Jackson's  manner  of  presentinff  Great  J'^ckson'* 
Britain's  ultimatum  came  in  for  severe  criticism. 
Thus  Lord  Eldon,  who  said  in  private  that  the 
story  made  his  heart  ache  and  his  blood  run  cold, 
related  in  after  life  what  old  King  George  thought 
of  the  matter.  When  Jackson  returned  to  London 
and  was  presented  at  court,   King  George  asked: 


222  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  Sept.  1807 

jackson'9  "  W^as  the  Prince  upstairs  or  down  when  he  received 

interview  '■ 

Ki^'^^^  you."  "He  was  on  the  ground  floor,"  replied 
Jackson.  "1  am  glad  of  it,"  exclaimed  the  old 
king.  "For  if  he  had  half  the  spirit  of  his  uncle 
[King  George  III.]  he  would  have  kicked  you  down- 
stairs." As  a  result  of  Jackson's  threats  of  coer- 
cion, Prince  Christian  sailed  immediately  for  Copen- 
hagen, whither  Jackson  followed  him.  On  August 
13,  Jackson  was  informed  that  the  Prince  would  not 
see  him  again,  and  that  his  Ministers  had  no  au- 
thority whatever  to  conclude  any  arrangement  upon 
terms  at  all  compatible  with  Jackson's  instructions. 
The  British  envoy  at  once  got  his  passports  and 
joined  the  fleet  lying  outside  Copenhagen,  Two 
days  later,  the  British  transports  landed  20,000 
soldiers  at  Vedvec  and  the  city  was  invested  on 
the  land  side.  Copenhagen  was  utterly  defenceless. 
Outside  of  Elsinor  Castle  there  was  not  a  battalion 
under  arms  in  all  Denmark.  Not  a  gun  was 
mounted  on  the  ramparts.  To  man  the  defences, 
volunteers  had  to  be  raised  among  the  populace. 
The  ships  in  the  harbor  lay  at  anchor  without  a  sail 
^™bard-  flapping.  On  September  2,  the  bombardment  of 
oopenha-  Copenhagen  was  begun.  For  three  days  the  field 
batteries  on  land  and  the  British  fleet  in  the  harbor 
poured  an  unceasing  fire  into  the  helpless  city.  In 
a  very  short  time  several  blocks  of  houses  were  on 
fire.  At  the  end  of  a  three  days'  bombardment  half 
of  the  city  was  in  ashes  and  nearly  2,000  non- 
combatants  lay  buried  in  the  smoking  ruins.  The 
British  took  possession  of  eighteen  Danish  ships  of 
the  line  and  all  the  war  frigates,  and  stripped  the 


1807 Sept.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  223 

dockyards  of  their  stores.  Denmark  lay  prone 
before  England.  All  Danish  merchant  vessels  that 
happened  to  be  in  English  waters  were  confiscated 
with  their  cargoes  to  the  value  of  £10,000,000. 
In  distant  India  the  flourishing  Danish  factory  at 
Bengal  was  swept  into  England's  pouch. 

The  bombardment  of  Copenhagen  affected  Europe 
as  did  Napoleon's  execution  of  the  Duke  Enghien. 
The  King  of  Denmark  at  once  addressed  a  procla- Prociama- 
mation  to  all  friendly  powers.     These  were  the  mostKinl-of 

.  Deumark 

striking  passages:  "All  Europe  is  acquainted  with 
Denmark's  unceasing  neutrality  during  this  period 
of  disturbance  and  war.  This  state  of  peace  and 
tranquillity  is  suddenly  annihilated.  The  Danish 
government  saw  the  English  ships  of  war  on  its 
coast  without  even  a  conjecture  that  they  were  to 
be  employed  against  Denmark.  The  English  court 
then  declared  to  the  court  of  Denmark  in  the  most 
overbearing  manner  that  Denmark  was  to  deliver 
up  all  her  ships  of  war  to  the  British  government. 
This  opening,  as  offensive  in  the  manner  of  presen- 
tation as  in  the  demand  itself,  left  no  room  for 
negotiation.  Placed  between  danger  and  dishonor, 
the  Danish  government  had  no  choice.  Cut  off'^|^f°*- 
from  all  means  of  defence  we  were  forced  into  the  England 
unequal  contest.  Let  impartial  cabinets  judge  of 
the  results.  Even  in  England  every  noble  and 
generous  mind  must  disown  this  act  of  violence 
which  deforms  the  character  of  a  virtuous  sovereign 
and  will  ever  remain  a  scandal  in  the  annals  of 
Great  Britain." 
Denmark    immediately   entered    into   an   alliance 


224  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Nov.  1807 

with  Napoleon.  Emperor  Alexander  of  Russia  re- 
vived the  northern  embargo  against  Jinglish  ship- 
ping in  a  proclamation  in  which  he  said:  "The  at- 
tack of  England  on  Denmark  was  an  outrage  in 
which  history,  so  replete  in  acts  of  violence,  has 
no  equal.  Russia  will  have  nothing  to  do  with 
England  until  satisfaction  shall  have  been  given  to 
Denmark."  England's  high-handed  acts  at  sea  left 
retaitatory  her  without  E  friend  save  Portugal.  Her  policy  of 
retaliation  was  enforced  all  the  more  relentlessly. 
Following  upon  the  attacks  on  the  "Chesapeake" 
and  Copenhagen,  the  British  cabinet  issued  a  decree 
which  prohibited  all  neutral  trade  along  the  entire 
European  sea-coast  from  Copenhagen  to  Trieste. 
Only  the  Baltic  ports  were  left  open.  No  American 
vessels  should  be  allowed  to  enter  any  port  in 
Europe  from  which  British  vessels  were  excluded. 
Tbese  rigorous  measures  were  taken  upon  the  recom- 
mendation of  a  parliamentary  committee  which  had 

Orders  in  '■  ''  ^^ 

Council  declared  that  the  distress  in  the  West  Indies  was 
due  to  "the  facility  of  intercourse,  under  the 
American  flag,  between  the  hostile  colonies  and 
Europe,  by  means  of  which  the  whole  of  their 
produce  was  carried  to  market  at  charges  little  ex- 
ceeding those  of  peace,  while  the  British  planter 
is  burdened  with  all  the  inconvenience,  risk  and 
expense  resulting  from  the  state  of  war."  After 
November  11,  1807,  any  American  vessel  carrying 
any  cargo  was  liable  to  capture  if  it  sailed  from 
any  port  not  under  British  control.  American  com- 
merce was  to  be  turned  perforce  into  exclusively 
English  channels. 


1607  Autumn  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  225 

America,  like  those  other  hapless   neutrals,  Den 
mark   and   Portugal,  was  caught   between   the  two 

1-  -11  f    Ti        1        T  T    T-i  /-A     1      Oppression 

grinding  millstones  or  Jiingland  and  r  ranee.     Unly  oi  neutrals 
her   greater  distance   from  Europe  saved   her  from 
a  fate  similar  to  that  of  the  others. 

A  characteristic  note  of  the  time  has  been  pre- 
served in  one  of  the  letters  of  the  American  Minis- 
ter at  Paris.  It  was  written  after  Napoleon's  first 
diplomatic  reception  at  the  Tuileries  on  his  return 
from  the  campaign  in  the  North.  After  telling  how 
roughly  the  French  Emperor  accosted  the  Danish 
and  Portuguese  Ambassadors  within  the  hearing 
of  their  colleagues,  General  Armstrong  goes  on: 
"These  circumstances  go  far  to  Justify  the  whisper  Letter  of 

American 

that  begins  to  circulate,  that  an  army  is  organizing  Miuister  at 
in  the  South  for  the  purpose  of  taking  possession  of 
Portugal,  and  another  in  the  North  for  a  similar 
purpose  against  Denmark.  Under  the  influence  of 
this  suggestion,  the  Danish  Minister,  asking  me 
aside,  inquired  whether  any  application  had  been 
made  to  me  with  regard  to  a  projected  union  of 
all  commercial  States  against  Great  Britain.  On 
my  answering  in  the  negative  he  remarked:  'You 
are  much  favored,  but  it  will  not  last.'  " 

The  Danish  Minister  was  right.  Shortly  after 
Napoleon's  orders  forced  the  governments  of  Den- 
mark and  Holland  to  close  their  ports,  the  Emperor 
wrote  to  Decr^s:  "France  cannot  regard  flags  which 
enjoy  no  consideration  as  neutral.  That  of  Amer- 
ica, however  exposed  it  may  be  to  the  insults  of  the 
English,  still  has  some  sort  of  existence.  Those  of 
Portugal  and  Denmark  exist  no  longer."      When 


226  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Mtumn  1807 

General  Armstroug  protested  against  the  condem- 

Hiition  of  an  American  cargo  that  had  been  wrecked 

threaten"    off  MoHaix,  Napoleon  responded  sharply:    "Since 

America 

America  suffers  her  vessels  to  be  searched,  she 
adopts  tbe  principle  that  the  flag  does  not  cover 
the  goods.  .  .  .  Why  should  Americans  not 
equally  suflEer  their  vessels  to  be  searched  by 
French  ships?  France  recognizes  that  these  meas- 
ures are  unjust  and  subversive  of  national  sover- 
eignty, but  it  is  the  duty  of  nations  to  resort  to 
force  and  to  declare  themselves  against  things  which 
dishonor  them  and  disgrace  their  independence." 

The  American  people,  aroused  as  they  were  over 

the  "Chesapeake"  affair  and  the  West  Indian  block- 

American  ade,  Were  coming  to  the  same  conclusion.     Gallatin, 

pre  para-  e       t  m 

tionsfor  tlie  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  began  making  his 
economic  preparations  for  war.  Congress,  at  the 
behest  of  President  Jefferson,  voted  $1,854,000  for 
additional  gunboats,  harbor  fortifications  and  shore 
defences.     The  navy  was  left  as  weak  as  before. 

Among  the  various  proposals  for  the  national 
defence  was  one  for  building  submarine  torpedoes. 
It  came  from   Eobert   Fulton  of   New   York.     On 

early  ex-  July  20,  1807,  iu  pursuaucc  of  the  experiments 
which  the  government  had  authorized  him  to  make, 
Fulton,  with  one  of  his  torpedoes,  blew  up  the  hulk 
of  a  large  brig  in  New  York  harbor.  This  exploit 
did  not  produce  a  favorable  impression  on  the  gov- 
ernment, as  the  torpedo  locks  missed  fire  several 
times,  and  the  explosion  did  not  occur  until  sev- 
eral hours  after  the  time  announced  to  the  spec- 
tators crowding  the  New   York  water  front.     The 


penments 


1805  Oct.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  227 

torpedo  in  this  instance  was  a  copper  case  two  feet 
long,  charged  with  one  hundred  pounds  of  gun- 
powder with  clockwork  to  set  it  off.  Previous 
to  this,  Fulton  had  offered  a  submarine  boat  to 
Napoleon   and  to  the  British  admiralty. 

Napoleon  commissioned  Fulton  to  blow  up  some  Napoleon 

^  ^  and  Fulton 

British  cruisers  outside  of  Brest.  When  Fulton 
failed  in  the  attempt,  Napoleon  lost  interest  in  the 
project.  Then  the  Earl  of  Stanhope,  the  inventor 
of  the  Stanhope  printing  press,  who  had  been  in- 
terested in  Fulton's  inventions  of  a  flax-spinning 
machine  and  cast-iron  aqueducts,  persuaded  Lord 
Sidmouth  to  call  Fulton  to  England.  A  naval  com- 
mission was  appointed  to  examine  Fulton's  scheme 
for  floating  mines  and  torpedoes.  On  October  15, 
1805,  Fulton  blew  up  the  hulk  of  a  Danish  brig 
in  Walniar  Roads,  in  sight  of  Mr.  Pitt's  country 
house.  As  reported  by  Fulton  in  a  letter  to  Lord 
Castlereagh,  the  experiment  proved  a  complete  sue-  Forerunner 
cess:  "Exactly  in  fifteen  minutes  from  the  time  of  torpedo 
drawing  the  peg  and  throwing  the  loaded  carcass 
in  the  water,  the  explosion  took  place.  It  lifted 
the  brig  almost  bodily  and  blew  her  completely  in 
two.  She  went  to  pieces  like  a  shattered  eggshell." 
An  attempt  to  blow  up  some  French  gun  brigs 
in  the  roads  of  Boulogne  proved  a  failure.  The 
torpedoes  exploded  alongside  of  the  Frenchmen  and 
did  no  harm.  Fulton  left  England  in  disappoint- 
ment and  returned  to  America.  Here  he  perfected 
his  model  of  a  steamboat  which  he  had  first  ex- 
hibited before  the  members  of  the  French  Academy 
on  the  waters   of  the  Seine.     In  Paris,  Chancellor 


228  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Aug.  1807 

Chancellor  Jjivinffston  of  New  York  had  become  deeply  inter- 

Livini:st<)n  o  i    ^ 

interested  ggjg^^  j^  Falton's  Steamboat.  He  entered  into  active 
partnership  with  the  inventor  and  had  a  bill  passed 
through  the  Legislature  of  New  York  granting  to 
Livingston  and  Fulton  the  exclusive  right  of  navi- 
gating steam  vessels  in  the  waters  of  New  York. 
For  a  long  time  this  steamboat  bill  was  a  standing 
subject  of  ridicule  among  the  legislators  of  Albany. 
Upon  his  return  to  America,  Fulton  and  Livingston 
began  in  earnest  to  build  their  steamboat.  The 
engine  was  furnished  by  Watt  and  Bolton  in  Bir- 
mingham, who  but  five  years  before  had  constructed 
an  engine  for  the  first  working  locomotive  in  Eng- 
land. In  August,  1807,  Fulton's  steamboat  was  fin- 
ished and  steamed  out  of  the  shipyard  of  Charles 
Brown  in  the  East  River.  She  was  named  the 
"Clermont,"   but  the  people  of  New  York  called 

"Fulton's    her   "Fulton's    Folly."      The    "Clermont"    was  a 

Folly"  _  •' 

schooner-rigged  boat  of  a  hundred  and  sixty 
tons,  and  had  a  cylinder  measuring  twenty-four 
inches  in  diameter  with  a  four-foot  stroke.  The 
paddlewheels  revolved  amidships  with  no  box  or 
covering.  Dry  pine  wood  was  used  for  fuel,  which 
sent  forth  thick  black  smoke  with  flames  and  sparks 
leaping  high  above  the  single  funnel.  This  gave 
the  ship  a  terrific  aspect,  and  spread  terror  among 
the  superstitious  watermen  of  New  York  harbor. 
On  August  11,  the  "Clermont"  made  her  maiden 
trip  up  the  Hudson  River  to  Chancellor  Living- 
ston's country-seat  near  Albany.  It  was  a  voyage 
of  a  hundred  and  ten  miles,  and  took  twenty-four 
hours,    without    a    mishap.      Fulton    wrote    to    his 


1807  Auff.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  229 

friend    Barlow   in    Paris:    "My   steamboat    voyaere ^""^""'^ 

J  JO     success 

to  Albany  and  back  has  turned  out  rather  more 
favorably  than  I  had  calculated.  The  voyage  was 
performed  wholly  by  power  of  the  steam  engine. 
I  overtook  many  sloops  and  schooners  beating  to 
windward  and  parted  with  them  as  if  they  had  been 
at  anchor.  The  power  of  propelling  boats  by  steam 
is  now  fully  proved.  The  morning  I  left  New  York 
there  were  not  thirty  persons  in  the  city  who  be- 
liev'ed  that  the  boat  would  ever  move  a  mile  an 
hour,  or  be  of  the  least  utility.  While  we  were 
putting  otf  from  the  wharf  I  heard  a  number  of 
sarcastic  remarks.  This  is  the  way  in  which  igno- 
rant men  compliment  what  they  call  philosophers 
and  projectors.  I  feel  infinite  pleasure  in  reflecting 
on  the  immense  advantages  my  country  will  derive 
from  the  invention."  Soon  the  boat  was  running 
as  a  regular  packet  between  New  York  and  Albany. 
The  river  men  grew  to  hate  her,  and  several  attempts  opp*^*^ 
were  made  to  sink  the  "Clermont."  The  New  York 
Legislature  finally  passed  an  act  declaring  all  com- 
binations to  destroy  her,  or  wilful  attempts  to  injure 
her,  public  offences  punishable  by  fine  and  impris- 
onment. Next  the  courts  were  asked  for  an  injunc- 
tion to  restrain  Fulton  from  using  his  new  machine 
on  the  Hudson,  but  with  _  Daniel  Webster  for  a 
pleader,  Fulton  won  his  case.  Other  steamboats 
were  soon  built  by  Livingston  and  Fulton,  and,  in 
the  end,  Fulton  furnished  the  city  of  New  York 
with  steam  ferries.  The  newspapers  of  the  time 
gave  scarcely  any  attention  to  Fulton's  steamboat. 
Much  was  said  on  the  other  hand  about  the  experi- 


230  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Sept.  ISOT 

Qarneria'8  meots  of  M.  Garnerin,  with  a  newly  invented  bal- 
loon  tilled  with  hydrogen  gas,  the  great  invention 
of  Lavoisier.  After  his  first  ascension  in  Milan, 
Garnerin  addressed  a  letter  to  the  newspapers  of 
Paris,  in  which  he  disposed  of  an  earlier  aeronaut's 
contentions  that  the  sun  and  moon  lost  their  bril- 
liancy and  gravity  in  force  at  high  altitudes.  After 
Garnerin 's  second  ascension  at  Paris  late  in  Septem- 
ber, 1807,  he  was  publicly  entertained  by  a  scien- 
tific society  and  the  officers  of  a  regiment  of  cui- 
rassiers, whose  standard  he  had  planted  on  a  high 
mountain. 

Reforms  While  sciencc  and  inventions  were  thus  progress- 
ing in  other  countries,  the  Prussian  people,  chas- 
tened by  war,  were  catching  up  their  lost  place  in 
the  march  of  civilization.  At  the  recommendation 
of  Napoleon,  who  disliked  Minister  Hardenberg  for 
his  steadfast   resistance   to  French   encroachments, 

of'stein'  Stein  was  summoned  to  the  head  of  the  Prussian 
Ministry.  To  Napoleon  he  was  known  only  as  a 
skilful  financier  who  was  likely  to  succeed  in  rais- 
ing the  money  for  the  heavy  war  indemnities  ex- 
acted by  France.  Stein  entered  into  office  on  Sep- 
tember 4,  1807,  Four  days  later  his  first  great 
legislative  measure  was  launched.  It  was  the 
abolition  of  sarfdom  in  Prussia,  and  of  all  feudal  dis- 
tinctions between  the  nobles,  burghers  and  peasants. 
The  family  estates  were  freed  from  entail.  Stein 
appointed  Scharnhorst  as  president  of  the  military 
commission,  which  did  away  with  the  enforced  mili- 
tary service  of  the  former  peasant  serfs,  and  created 
in  Its  stead  a  system  of  universal  service  with  the 


1807 Oct.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  231 

colors.  To  comply  at  least  outwardly  with  Napo- 
leon's demand  for  a  restriction  of  the  Prussian  army 
to  40,000  men,  Scharnhorst  devised  a  short  service 
system,  with  various  reserves,  by  means  of  which 
all  citizens  could  be  made  to  serve  their  time  with 
the  colors.  Stein  likewise  planned  to  give  to  Prus- 
sia a  Constitutional  Parliament,  modelled  after  that 
of  Great  Britain,  with  municipal  home  rule,  but 
succeeded  only  in  establishing  the  last.  Stein's  re- reforms 
forms  aroused  so  much  opposition  on  the  part  of 
the  Prussian  nobles,  besides  incurring  the  jealous 
suspicions  of  Napoleon,  that  his  Ministry  was  not 
destined  to  endure.  While  it  lasted  the  way  was 
prepared  for  Prussia's  resurrection  from  the  politi- 
cal degradation  and  gloom  to  which  she  had  sunk 
through  the  events  of  the  last  few  years. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  year,  war  clouds  once  more 
gathered  over  Europe.  England's  uncompromising 
attitude  determined  Gustavus  IV.  of  Sweden  to 
carry  on  the  war  in  the  North,  which,  had  lapsed 
after  the  defeat  of  the  Russians  and  Prussians,  and 
his  own  armistice  at  Shlakkov.  Outgeneralled  by 
Marshal  Brune,  the  Swedes  lost  Stralsund  and  K^^""** 
Kuegen,  and  had  to  withdraw  into  the  interior. 
This  ended  the  campaign  in  the  North  for  the 
nonce. 

The  only  remaining  neutral  in  Europe  was  Portu- 
gal.     The  Regent,  placed   between  the  alternative 
of  losing  his  ancient  kingdom  or  his  vast  new  pos-  Predjca- 
sessions    across    the   sea,    leaned    toward    England,  ^"'■'^"fi^ 
Napoleon  saw  his  opportunity  in  Spain  by  making 
a  bold  stroke  against  Portugal.     Portugal's  refusal 


232  A   HISTORY  OF   THE  Nov.  i807 

to  confiscate  all  English  property  set  the  ball  roll- 
ino-.  Oa  October  17,  General  Junot  marched  from 
Bayonne  with  27,000  men  headed  for  the  Pyrenees. 
Ten  days  later,  a  secret  treaty  for  the  spoliation  of 
Portusral  was  concluded  at  Fontainebleaa  between 

Treaty  " 

Taik^raui  Talleyrand  and  Godoy,  the  Prime  Minister  of 
andGodoy  gp^-^  rpj^g  King  of  Etruria  was  to  exchange 
his  kingdom  for  a  Portuguese  province,  and 
Godoy  was  to  receive  the  sovereignties  of  Al- 
garvez  and  Alentejo,  in  Portugal.  All  Portu- 
guese colonies  were  to  fall  to  Spain,  and  King 
Charles  IV.  of  Spain  was  to  be  recognized  as 
Emperor  of  both  Americas.  Neither  the  Spanish 
Minister,  nor  the  Crown  Prince,  who  intrigued 
with  Napoleon  against  Godoy,  realized  the  danger 
of  the  projected  French  invasion  of  Spain. 

General  Junot,  with    his   army  of    the   Gironde, 

marching   across   Spain  at   the   utmost  speed,   was 

jYench      welcomed  by  both  government  and  the  people.    At 

iDTasioD  of 

Portugal  the  Portuguese  frontier  no  resistance  was  encoun- 
tered. The  governor  of  the  Portuguese  province 
Tras  los  Montes  wrote:  "We  are  unable  to  enter- 
tain you  as  friends  or  to  resist  you  as  enemies.  I 
have  the  honor  to  be,"  etc.  The  French  troops 
swarmed  over  the  mountains  and  concentrated  rap- 
idly upon  Lisbon.  At  Lisbon,  the  royal  Princes 
of  Braganza  were  still  deliberating  what  to  do  when 
they  received  a  copy  of  "Le  Mouiteur, "  printed  on 
November  13,  in  which  was  published  Napoleon's 
decree:  "La  Maison  de  Brag.mze  a  cess^  de  regner 
en  Europe."  After  consultation  with  the  British 
ambassador,    the   Hegent   of    Portugal    resolved    to 


1807  Nov.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  233 

maintain  the  independence  of  his  family  by  flight^'5^^^"^^^ 
across  the  Atlantic.  As  the  French  troops  ap- ^"'■^"°'^* 
peared  before  Lisbon,  the  Regent  with  his  family 
embarked  on  a  fleet  of  sixteen  ships.  Accompanied 
by  four  British  convoys  under  Sir  Sydney  Smith, 
and  saluted  by  British  guns,  the  fleet  dropped  down 
the  Tagus  and  put  to  sea  for  Rio  Janeiro.  Marshal 
Junot,  a  few  hours  later,  occupied  the  royal  palace. 
The  B'rench  troops  were  in  wretched  condition  from 
their  prolonged  rapid  marches.  Cannon  were  placed 
in  all  the  streets  and  the  inhabitants  were  disarmed. 
Heavy  contributions  were  levied  for  the  support  of 
the  French  troops.  The  flower  of  the  Portuguese 
army  was  sent  to  France.  The  island  colony  of 
Madeira  was  occupied  by  a  British  garrison  to  be 
held  for  the  Portuguese  princes  until  better  days. 
In  Madrid,  Grodoy,  the  Prime  Minister,  looked  for- 
ward to  receiving  his  share  in  the  spoil  of  Portugal,  Spanish 
but  Napoleon  had  another  end  in  view.  Not  only '" 
Portugal  but  Spain,  too,  was  to  be  his  prey.  For 
more  than  a  year  he  had  contemplated  some  such 
project — since  the  day  in  1806  that  Godoy  had 
dared  to  prepare  for  war  against  France,  by  call- 
ing the  Spanish  people  to  arms.  Godoy's  attempt 
to  propitiate  Napoleon  after  the  French  victories 
at  Jena  and  Auerstaedt,  by  sending  14,000  Spanish 
auxiliaries  against  Russia,  proved  a  mere  sop  to 
the  conqueror.  Under  the  circumstances,  Godoy's 
chosen  title,  the  "Prince  of  Peace,"  partook  of 
ironical  significance.  Latter-day  historians  have 
come  to  regard  this  man  as  the  prince  of  evil  for 
Spain. 


234  A     HISTORY    OF    THE  Autumn  1807 

^doyi         ^'^  *^^  autumn  of  1807,  Godoy  stood  at  the  zen- 

^^^  ith  of  his  power.     His  full    name   and   titles  were 

Don  Manuel  Godoy,  Prince  of  Peace,  Duke  of  Alcu- 
dia,  Count  of  Evora  Monte,  Grandee  of  the  first 
class  of  Spain,  Commander  of  the  Knights  of  Malta, 
K.night  of  the  Golden  P'leece,  Grand  Cross  Bearer 
of  the  Order  of  Charles  111.,  President  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  Castile,  Generalissimo  of  the  Spanish  armies, 
High  Admiral  of  the  royal  fleet,  Colonel  of  the 
Household  Troops,  etc.  With  the  exception  of  his 
promised  principalities  in  Portugal,  all  these  honors 
had  come  to  him  by  the  grace  of  Queen  Maria 
Louisa,  one  of  the  Naples  Bourbons.  She  was 
thirty-four  when  she  first  bestowed  her  favors  on 
Godoy,  then  an  untitled  young  gentleman  trooper 
of  twenty-two.     She  had  him  educated  and  drew 

oodoy's  ^i™  i^*o  all  the  intrigues  of  court.  Within  two 
years  she  caused  him  to  be  made  Colonel  of  the 
Guards  and  procured  him  a  seat  in  the  Council  of 
Castile.  When  Count  Aranda,  the  former  Minis- 
ter, was  dismissed  for  recognizing  the  revolutionary 
government  in  France,  the  Queen's  favorite  was  in- 
stalled as  Prime  Minister.  After  an  unsuccessful 
campaign  against  the  French  republic,  in  1794, 
Godoy  concluded  peace  and  presented  France  with 
the  Pandora  box  of  Western  San  Domingo.  For  this 
he  received  the  title  "Prince  of  Peace,"  with  large 
sums  from  the  secret  fund  of  Portugal.  The  next 
war  was  with  England,  and  was  even  more  disas- 

T?fnid^^^ trous  for  Spain.     England  took  the  Island  of  Trini- 
dad,  and   practically   wiped  out   all   Spanish  com 
merce  with  the  West  Indies.     By  this  time  Godoy 


1807  Autumn  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  285 

was  so  thoroughly  ingratiated  at  court  that  nothing 
could  harm  him.  He  was  the  reputed  father  of  one 
of  tbe  royal  princes,  Don  Francisco  de  Paula.  At 
the  same  time  he  lived  in  open  relations  with  Donna 
Josepha  Tuda,  who  bore  him  several  children.  Be- 
sides this  the  Queen  permitted  him  to  marry  the 
second  daughter  of  Don  Luis,  brother  to  the  King. 
The  Archbishop  of  Toledo  declined  to  perform  the 
marriage  ceremony,  and  the  outraged  grandees  of 
Spain  all  remained  aloof,  but  the  nuptials  were 
duly  celebrated  in  the  royal  chapel,  and  the  Queen 
appointed  Grodoy's  mistress  as  one  of  her  ladies  in 
waiting.  When  France  dragged  Spain  into  a  war 
with  Portugal,  Godoy  was  made  generalissimo  in 
the  field,  but  sold  out  to  Portugal  without  evergSh*"* 
encouifitering  the  enemy.  A  few  years  later,  when  ^°  "'^ 
the  United  States  made  preparation  to  secure  free 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi  by  seizing  the  Spanish 
colony  of  New  Orleans,  Godoy  averted  war  by  se- 
cretly deeding  Louisiana  to  France.  The  next  war, 
brought  on  by  England's  seizure  of  the  Spanish 
treasure  ships  from  Mexico  in  1804,  resulted  in  the 
disaster  of  Trafalgar.  The  Prince  of  Peace  ex- 
pressed himself  as  satisfied,  for  he  had  never  ap- 
proved  of  this  war  which  threatened  Spain  with  the 
loss  of  all  her  colonial  possessions.  What  remained 
of  the  Spanish  fleet  was  sent  to  Toulon  just  previ- 
ous to  Napoleon's  descent  upon  Portugal. 

In  the  meantime,   the  Spanish  king's  eldest  son  Ferdinand 
Ferdinand,  Prince  of  Asturias,  who   was  virtually  wini 

•'  France 

banished  from  court  by  the  disfavor  of  his  mother, 
carried  on  a  plot  of  his  own  with  Napoleon.     He 


236  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Oct.  lao? 

entered  into  a  secret  upderstaadiog  with   Empress 

Josephine's   relative,   De    Beaaharnais,   the   French 

nand's       ambassador  at  Madrid.     On  October  11,  1807,    Fer- 

leiier  to  i   •  i  xt  i  r  i 

Napoleon  dinand  wrote  an  abject  letter  to  rsapoleon  for  the 
ostensible  purpose  of  congratulating  him  on  his 
"providential  salvation  of  Europe  and  the  restora- 
tion of  the  tranquillity  and  happiness  of  nations." 
The  letter  went  on:  "If  those  men,  who  unfortu- 
nately surround  my  father,  suffered  him  to  become 
acquainted  with  your  imperial  and  royal  majesty's 
real  character,  it  would  draw  closer  the  ties  which 
would  unite  our  respective  houses.  What  means 
could  be  better  calculated  to  attain  this  object  than 
that  of  soliciting  from  your  imperial  and  royal 
majesty  the  honor  of  giving  to  me  in  marriage 
a  princess  of  your  august  family.  This  is  all  my 
heart  desires,  but  it  is  not  what  is  calculated  upon 
by  the  perfidious  and  selfish  men  who  surround  the 
King,  and  who  will  on  the  first  opportunity  mislead 
him."  Godoy,  through  his  spies,  had  been  fully 
informed  of  Ferdinand's  plotting  with  Beauharnais, 
and  furthermore  of  his  disposition  to  seize  the  reins 
in  case  of  his  father's  death,  before  Godoy  might  use 
his  powers  to  place  on  the  throne  his  own  reputed 

Godov       son,  Prince  Francisco.     On  October  29,  Ferdinand 

cbecK-  ' 

FenUnand  ^^  Suddenly  arrested  and  brought  before  his  father 
on  charges  that  he  had  plotted  against  his  mother's 
life.  King  Charles  ordered  Ferdinand  to  be  cast 
into  prison  and  wrote  an  indignant  letter  to  Napo- 
leon in  which  he  announced  his  intention  to  deprive 
his  eldest  son  of  the  succession. 
This  was  a  misstep.     Ferdinand  was  very  popular 


1807  Dec  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  237 

with  the  mass  of  the  Spanish  people,  chiefly  because 
he  was  known  to  be  an  enemy  of  Godoy,  who  was 
hated  by  all.  On  the  Prince  of  Asturias  were  fixed 
all  Spanish  hopes  of  reform.  There  were  threaten- 
ing indications  of  the  popular  feeling  on  the  subject, 
and  Grodoy  was  further  alarmed  at  Ferdinand's  reve- 
lations of  the  French  ambassador's  complicity  in 
his  plans.  Godoy  thought  best  to  recede  from  his 
extreme  position,  and  prevailed  upon  the  King  toA.^turias 
liberate  his  son,  on  condition  that  Ferdinand  begged 
the  King's  and  Queen's  forgiveness.  This  the  Prince 
was  more  than  ready  to  do.  On  November  5,  a 
royal  manifesto  announced  the  King's  forgiveness 
of  bis  son.  Ferdinand  was  set  free.  His  friends, 
who  had  been  placed  on  trial  as  so-called  accom- 
plices, were  acquitted  by  their  judges  and  left 
Madrid  unharmed. 

Napoleon,  while  receiving  the  confidences  of  both  Napoleon's 

A  '  <-'  uesigns  on 

father  and  son,  had  no  idea  of  doing  anything  for^^'^^'^ 
either,  for  that  would  not  further  his  own  interests. 
The  imbroglio  at  Madrid  fitted  admirably  into  his 
plans.  While  the  Emperor  strove  to  lull  Spain  into 
security  by  making  an  aimless  journey  to  Italy,  his 
generals  at  Bayonne  received  orders  to  prepare  for 
a  sudden  march  on  Madrid. 

During  the  interval  many  things  happened  to 
divert  the  attention  of  Europe.  On  December  1, 
the  King  of  Prussia,  at  the  behest  of  Napoleon,  cut 
off  all  relations  with  England.  A  few  days  after 
ward,  Napoleon's  brother  Jerome  formally  as- 
cended the  throne  of  his  new  kmgdom,  Westpha- 
lia.    On  December  10,  the  kingdom  of  Etruria  was 


238  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Dec.  1807 

relinquished  by  the  JBourbons  and  French  troops 
occupied  the  country.  On  December  17,  Napoleon 
Decree  issucd  a  decfce  at  Milan,  in  reply  to  the  British  note 
of  J^ovember  11,  in  which  he  declared  any  ship  that 
touched  at  an  English  port  or  yielded  to  England's 
demands,  thereby  lost  the  protection  of  her  neutral 
ilag,  and  should  be  seized  as  a  prize.  A  blockade 
was  declared  against  all  British  possessions.  As 
if  in  answer,  the  British  Ministry  on  the  following 
day  published  King  George's  response  to  Russia's 
protest  against  the  bombardment  of  Copenhagen. 
The  right  of  search  and  impressment,  with  all  other 
obnoxious  British  practices  at  sea,  were  reiterated 
as  a  maritime  privilege,  the  enforcement  of  which 
was  rendered  doubly  necessary  by  Napoleon's  acts 
of  usurpation. 
American  In  anticipation  of  what  was  coming,  the  Ameri- 
u,tionAct  can  Congress  had  already  passed  a  Non-Impor- 
tation Act,  which  now  went  into  force,  despite 
the  protests  of  American  and  English  merchants. 
British  trade  was  seriously  affected.  Among  the 
forbidden  articles  were  all  products  of  leather,  silk, 
hemp,  glass,  silver,  paper,  pictures,  prints,  woollen 
hosiery,  ready-made  clothing,  millinery,  malt  liq- 
uors, and  so  forth.  The  intention  practically  was  to 
punish  England  by  a  fine  of  several  million  dollars 
for  her  interference  with  American  transatlantic 
trade.  Under  the  stress  of  new  restrictive  measures 
threatened  by  France  and  England,  the  United  States 
and  France  went  even  further.  On  December  17, 
simultaneously  with  the  new  French  and  English 
decrees,  President  Jefferson  issued  a  proclamation 


1807  Dec.  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  239 

to  Congress  calling  for  a  general  embargo  of  all  "^elflrir"'* 
American  trade  with  Europe.  In  his  message  he*^'"''^'"^° 
said:  "The  whole  world  is  laid  under  interdict  by 
Great  Britain  and  France,  and  our  vessels,  their 
cargoes  and  their  crews  are  to  be  taken  by  one  or 
by  the  other,  no  matter  to  what  place  they  may 
be  destined,  out  of  our  own  limits.  If  therefore  on 
leaving  our  harbors  we  are  certainly  to  lose  them, 
is  it  not  better  as  to  vessels,  cargoes  and  seamen 
to  keep  them  at  home?" 

Within  four  or  five  hours  after  the  message  had 
been  read,  the  Senate  sent  the  Embargo  Act  to  the 
House.  The  House  passed  it  on  December  21,  by 
a  vote  of  82  to  44.  The  President  signed  the  bill 
the  next  day.     For  most  Americans,  this  embargo. 


disastrous  as  its  effects  were  on  American  commerce,  American 

premoni- 
tions of 
war 


brought  premonitions  of   the  impending  war  with 
England. 

In  Spain,  during  these  same  days,  the  curtain  rose 
on  a  war  that  is  known  to  English-speaking  men  as 
the  War  of  the  Peninsula — to  Spaniards  as  LaJ;f^enm-^ 
Guerra  de  la  Independencia.  General  Dupont's 
French  army  corps  crossed  the  Pyrenees  in  the 
last  days  of  1807.  The  French  troops  were  re- 
ceived with  acclamation  by  the  Spanish  populace. 
Spaniards  still  believed  that  Napoleon  had  espoused 
the  cause  of  Ferdinand  and  meant  to  free  Spain 
from  the  detested  rule  of  Godoy.  The  French  in 
turn  proclaimed  themselves  as  the  friends  of  Ferdi- 
nand and  protectors  of  the  true  Catholic  faith. 


240  A   HliSTORV    OF    THE  Jaa  1808 


Resources 


1808 

ON  New  Year's  Day,  Napoleon  returned  to 
Paris  to  execute  his  designs  against  Spain. 
At  the  outset  of  the  struggle  in  the  penin- 
sula, Great  Britain's  military  power  consisted  of 
more  than  a  thousand  warships — to  wit,  250  sail  of 
the  hne,  261  frigates,  258  brigs  and  300  sloops-of- 
war.     The  British  army,  numbering  some  200,000 

^FVan*ife^  mcu,   was    held   in   small    esteem   by   the   French. 

land  °  The  French  navy,  what  little  was  left  of  it,  in 
land-locked  harbors,  was  despised  by  the  British. 
Of  French  soldiers  there  were  nearly  a  million 
under  arms.  By  a  new  decree  of  January  21,  an- 
other levy  of  80,000  men  was  added  to  this.  Spain, 
at  this  time,  had  a  population  of  about  thirteen 
millions.  The  Spanish  soldiers  had  been  distrib- 
uted by  Napoleon  in  different  parts  of  the  world, 
some  serving  under  Junot  in  Portugal,  others  in 
Germany,  and  some  on  the  frontier  of  Sweden. 

At  the  opening  of  1808  two  French  army  corps 
had  entered  Spain  in  the  wake  of  Junot's  first 
army  of  the  Gironde.  They  numbered  53,000  men. 
The  second  army  of  the  Gironde,   under  Dupont, 

Invasion 

of  Spain  advanced  to  Vittoria  and  thence  to  Valadolid,  while 
Marshal  Money's  column,  called  the  army  of  the 
seu-coast,  marched  along  the  road  from  Bayonne  to 


1808  Feb.  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  241 

Madrid.  Together  they  cut  off  the  northern  prov- 
inces from  Madrid  and  put  themselves  in  possession 
of  the  upper  Spanish  strongholds.  A  fourth  divis- 
ion, under  General  Duhesme,  crossing  the  Eastern  ^jjg^g_ 
Pyrenees,  marched  for  Barcelona.  General  Brandt  t^'pyr^™ 
in  his  memoirs  tells  how  some  of  the  northern  for- 
tresses fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French.  At  Pam- 
peluna  the  French  soldiers,  who  had  been  welcomed 
by  the  inhabitants,  went  into  quarters  near  the  cas- 
tle. Every  day  a  file  of  them  went  to  the  citadel 
with  large  bags  to  fetch  bread.  One  day,  after  a 
slight  snowfall,  a  number  of  French  soldiers  took 

to   snowballing  in  front  of  the  castle,  while  their  Northern 

"  '  strong- 

comrades  crowded  around  as  if  to  watch  the  fun.  ^'^^^ 

Meanwhile  the  French  commissary  men  entered  the 
citadel  with  their  bread  sacks,  in  which  were  con- 
cealed short  swords  and  pistols.  Of  a  sudden  they 
overpowered  the  guards  at  the  gate,  and  the  mass 
of  apparently  idle  soldiers  near  by  made  a  concerted 
rash  into  the  citadel. 

In  Madrid  the  advance  of  the  French  aroused  great  gpaaish 
alarm.  King  Charles  wrote  to  Napoleon  in  a  tone  alarmed 
of  friendly  inquiry.  He  received  a  vague  reply 
that  was  anything  but  reassuring.  On  February 
20,  Marshal  Murat  left  Paris  to  assnme  command 
in  Spain.  On  March  1,  he  entered  the  country  with 
no  instructions,  but  to  reassure  all  parties  and  com- 
mit himself  to  none.  It  was  now  that  the  Spanish 
court,  expecting  to  see  the  French  in  front  of  Ma- 
drid before  another  fortnight,  resolved  to  follow  the 
example  of   the  Prince  of   Braganza,   by  flight  to 

Mexico.     Preparations  for  the  preliminary  journey 

XlXth  Century— Vol.  1— ii 


242  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  March  1808 

to  Seville  were  in  progress  when  Prince  Ferdinand's 
grooms  spread  a  report  that  Godoy  was  about  to  ab- 
duct the  King  in  order  to  continue  his  own  misgov- 
Riots  of     ernment.     The   people  of  Araniuez  rushed  out  of 

Araujucz  *■        ^  •' 

their  houses  and  cut  the  traces  of  the  royal  car- 
riage. Quiet  was  restored  when  the  King  gave  his 
word  that  no  journey  was  intended.  That  evening 
he  issued  this  proclamation:  "My  beloved  subjects, 
calm  your  perturbed  spirits.  Know  that  the  army 
of  my  dear  friend  the  Emperor  of  the  French  is 
marching  through  my  States  with  sentiments  of 
peace  and  amity.  The  object  is  to  protect  the 
points  threatened  by  the  landing  of  an  enemy  on 
the  coasts  of  Spain.  My  guards  have  not  been 
called  either  to  defend  my  person  or  to  escort  me 
on  a  journey,  as  some  malignant  spirits  have  told 
you. "  The  next  day  a  mob  marched  from  Madrid  to 
Aranjuez,  and  called  for  the  blood  of  Godoy.  The 
soldiers  of  the  royal  guard  joined  them.     Godoy's 

Godoy ^  palace  in  Madrid  was  sacked.  The  Prime  Minister 
himself,  after  lying  hid  for  thirty-six  hours,  was 
dragged  forth  and  hurried  to  the  barracks  amid 
blows  and  curses.  On  the  19th,  the  riots  recom- 
menced in  Aranjuez.  The  terrified  King  first  issued 
a  decree  depriving  Godoy  of  all  his  dignities,  and 

Chafies  ^^^^  abdicated  in  favor  of  his  son  Ferdinand.  On 
March  20,  a  new  king  was  proclaimed  in  Madrid. 
Two  days  later,  Murat  rode  into  Madrid  with  a 
vanguard  of  cavalry,  followed  by  Money's  corps  of 
infantry.  Dupont's  division  occupied  Aranjuez 
and  the  Escurial.  Here  as  elsewhere  the  French 
soldiers    were   welcomed    by    the   populace   as   the 


abdicates 


1808 April  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  243 

deliverers  of  Ferdinand.    The  next  day  Ferdinand '^^P/T"?'* 

•^  m  Madrid 

himself  made  a  solemn  entry  into  Madrid.  During 
the  festivities  it  was  noticed  that  the  French  troops 
paid  scant  attention  to  the  royal  pageant.  Marshal 
Murat,  while  presenting  a  claim  for  the  famous 
sword  of  Francis  I.  of  France,  abstained  from  ac- 
cording any  formal  recognition  to  Ferdinand.  Murat 
himself  entertained  secret  hopes  that  he  might  be 
placed  on  the  throne  of  Spain,  as  he  had  longed 
before  to  become  King  of  Poland.  The  enthusi- 
asm of  the  populace  quickly  turned  into  suspicion 
and  ill-will.  There  was  constant  friction  between 
Murat's  soldiers  and  the  people  of  Madrid.  Tlie 
late  king  wrote  to  Murat  that  his  abdication  had 
been  forced  and  was  therefore  void.  Ferdinand 
had  a  conference  with  Savary,  Napoleon's  special 
emissary,  to  obtain  the  French  Emperor's  recogni' 
tion  in  person.  He  was  led  to  believe  that  Napo- 
leon would  meet  him  half  way  at  Burgos.  Accord- 
ingly he  journeyed  northward  in  company  of  Savary 
and  his  suite.  At  Burgos  they  found  the  Emperor. 
From  all  sides  Ferdinand  received  warnings  not  tOp^..^ 
proceed.  Some  of  his  noblemen  offered  to  carry  ."[Icoyed™* 
him  out  of  danger  by  sea.  At  Vittoria  the  people 
held  up  the  horses  and  implored  him  not  to  leave 
the  country.  Ferdinand  was  obdurate.  Beguiled 
by  a  letter  from  Napoleon,  who  had  proceeded  to 
Bayonne  with  Josephine,  he  crossed  the  Pyreaees 
and  sought  out  the  Emperor  there.  After  a  recep- 
tion and  a  dinner  at  a  neighboring  chateau,  Ferdi- 
nand was  informed  by  Savary  that  he  was  expected 
to  exchange  his  crown  for  that  of  the  defunct  king- 


Madrid 


244  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  May  1808 

dom  of  Etruria.  For  several  days  the  tricked  prince 
PrnJcIs  held  out.  Virtually,  he  was  a  prisoner  in  the  hands 
cants  at     of  Napolcon.    He  was  joined  presently  by  his  father 

BayoQDe  t         i       i  •         i      • 

and  mother,  who  had  come  in  their  turn  to  sue  for 
favors  from  Napoleon.  Godoy,  who  had  been  liber- 
ated by  Murat,  also  came  to  Baj^onne.  All  three 
overwhelmed  Ferdinand  with  reproaches. 

Things  were  at  this  pass  when  the  population  of 
Madrid,  exasperated  by  the  events  of  the  last  few 
weeks,  rose  against  the  foreign  invaders.  Before 
this,  anti-French  riots  had  already  broken  out  in 
d^Makfin  Tolcdo.  On  May  2 — the  famous  Dos  de  Maio,  which 
has  since  become  a  Spanish  holiday — the  people  of 
Madrid  went  wild  at  the  sight  of  a  carriage  in  front 
of  the  royal  palace  which  was  intended  to  cany  the 
infant  prince,  Don  Antonio,  the  last  member  of 
the  royal  family,  to  France.  The  horses  were  taken 
out  of  the  traces  and  the  little  prince  was  snatched 
from  the  carriage.  At  this  moment,  Murat's  aide- 
de-camp  galloped  up.  He  was  dragged  from  his 
horse  and  roughly  handled  till  the  French  guards 
of  the  palace  came  to  the  rescue.  In  an  incredibly 
short  time  the  commotion  spread  through  the  whole 
city.  French  soldiers  were  struck  down  on  every 
street,  and  the  military  hospital  was  attacked. 
Squadrons  of  cavalry  were  called  in  from  the  sub- 
urbs. The  great  thoroughfare  of  Alcala,  Puerta 
del  Sol  and  the  central  square  were  the  chief  scenes 
of  slaughter. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  conflict  Murat 
ordered  a  detachment  of  200  men  to  take  possession 
of  the  arsenal.     Two  ofl&cers  happened  to  be  upon 


1808  May  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  2)^ 

guard  there,  by  name  Daoiz  and  Velarde.  They 
pointed  a  cannon  down  the  street  and  with  the  help 
of  their  gunners  succeeded  in  sweeping  the  street 
with  grape-shot.  Two  battalions  of  French  soldiers 
had  to  be  ordered  up,  and  finally  the  small  band  jiaasacr* 
was  killed.  Several  regiments  of  infantry  wereienos 
marched  through  the  city  in  detachments,  firing 
volleys  into  ail  cross  streets.  Many  of  the  rioters 
were  shot,  others  were  taken  prisoners,  and  finally 
order  was  restored  with  the  help  of  the  Spanish 
garrison  which  had  been  confined  in  its  barracks 
during  the  tumult.  But  at  nightfall  the  peasants 
from  the  suburbs  beset  the  gates.  As  many  as 
sixty  were  shot  during  the  night.  On  the  morrow 
it  was  found  that  more  than  five  hundred  French- 
men had  been  killed.  In  exasperation  the  French 
shot  eighty  of  their  prisoners  on  the  Prado.  Others 
were  shot  to  death  in  the  barracks. 

Such  was  the  news  from  Madrid  that  reached 
Bayonne  in  the  midst  of  the  royal  family  supplica- 
tions for  their  lost  throne.  Napoleon  curtly  in- 
formed Ferdinand  that  if  he  withheld  his  abdication 
for  another  day  he  would  be  treated  as  a  rebel. 
The  bearer  of  this  message  was  Savary,  who  had 
played  so  prominent  a  part  in  the  memorable  execu- 
tion of  the  Duke  of  Enghien.  With  the  fate  of  that 
luckless  prince  thus  recalled,  Ferdinand  hesitated  crowa*^ 
no  longer.     His  father,  Charles,  likewise  renounced  from 

^  BourbOQ* 

the  throne.  The  crown  of  Spain  was  yielded  to 
Napoleon  by  both  father  and  son.  They  were  dis- 
missed with  a  couple  of  country  houses  near  Paris, 
and  a  life  annuity  of  seven  and  a  half  million  francs. 


246  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Spring  1808 

About   the   same   time  that  French  troops  were 
seizing  the  Spanish  citadels  in  Pampeluna,  Barce- 
lona, Figueras,  and  San  Sebastian,  French  soldiers 
French      wcrc   marchcd   into    Rome.      Their  avowed  object 
oc'cilpy      was   to   eject   from   the  Vatican   the    emissaries  of 
those  countries   that   still   maintained    hostility   to 
France,  to  wit:  England  and  Sweden.     Pope  Pius 
VII.  threatened  to  excommunicate  Napoleon.     In 
a  papal    bull  of   March  27,  the  grievances  against 
Napoleon  were  recited:  "For  a  long  time  the  Holy- 
See  has  been  burdened  by  the  enforced  sustenance  of 
the  French  troops,  which  have  consumed  nearly  five 
million  scudi.    You  have  deprived  us  of  the  duchies 
of  Beneventum  and  Ponte-Corvo.     Now  you  have 
invaded    the   capital   itself,    and    have   made    us  a 
prisoner  in  our  own  apostolic  residence."    Napoleon 
fh*reaf°i'ed  replied   to  the  Pope's   threat   of   excommunication 
excommu-  by  a  dccrce  announcing  the  annexation  of  the  papal 

nicatioa 

provinces  Ancona,  Urbino,  Macerata  and  Camerino 
to  the  kingdom  of  Italy.  The  King  of  Naples, 
Joseph,  was  summoned  to  serve  as  King  of  Spain, 
since  his  brother  Louis  had  declined  that  honor. 

In  northern  Europe,  too,  there  was  a  lively  inter- 
change  of   State  papers.     Russia  declared  war   on 
Finland      SwedcQ  and  seized  Finland  as  per  agreement  with 

annexed  ^  " 

by  Russia  Napolcou.  In  a  proclamation  to  the  Finns  the  Czsar 
pledged  his  imperial  word  that  all  the  internal  aSuirs 
of  their  country  should  pursue  their  usual  course  and 
be  managed  according  to  their  ancient  laws  and  cus- 
toms. The  payment  of  taxes,  freedom  of  religious 
worship,  as  well  as  all  other  privileges  guaranteed 
by  the  constitution  of  Finland,  were  to  remain  on 


1807  May  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  247 

the  same  footinsr.     Denmark  and  Prussia  followed  ^^V" 

°  Sweden 

suit  with  declarations  of  war  against  Sweden.  The 
King  of  Sweden  answered  in  kind.  General  Arm- 
feldt  at  the  head  of  the  Swedish  army  occupied 
Norway.  Great  Britain  engaged  to  assist  Sweden 
with  a  monthly  subsidy  of  £100,000,  beginning 
with   January,    1808. 

Napoleon,  during  this  interval,  collected  a  body 
of  Spanish  notables  at  Bayonne,  composed  mainly 
of  the  courtiers  that  had  come  into  the  suite  of  the 
dethroned  king  and  queen.  Joseph  was  hurried  from 
Naples  by  the  following  peremptory  letter:  "I  desire  poQa^^arte 
immediately  on  the  receipt  of  this  letter  that  you  will  ^'^™™  ° 
give  the  regency  of  the  kingdom  of  Naples  to  whom- 
ever you  like,  the  command  of  the  troops  to  Marshal 
Jourdan,  and  then  start  for  Bayonne.  You  will 
receive  this  letter  on  the  19th.  You  will  leave  on 
the  20th,  and  be  here  on  the  1st  of  June."  Joseph 
unwillingly  complied.  Murat,  who  had  set  his  heart 
on  the  throne  of  Spain,  sickened  with  chagrin  and 
nearly  died. 

In  every  part  of  Spain  the  people  were  arming  to 
expel  the  foreign  intruder.  On  May  20,  the  same 
day  that  Tuscany,  Piacenza  and  Parma  were  wrested 
from  another  Bourbon  prince,  the  abdication  of  the 
Spanish  Bourbons  was  announced  in  the  "Gazeta" 
of  Madrid.  Napoleon,  through  this  medium,  thus 
addressed  the  Spanish  people:  "I  have  watched 
your  sufferings;  I  shall  remedy  them.  Your  princes 
have  ceded  to  me  their  rights  to  the  crown  of  Spain. 
I  do  not  wish  to  reign  over  your  provinces,  but  I 
would  earn  a  title  to  your  eternal  love  and  the  grati- 


248  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  May  1807 

Napoleon's  tude  of  vour  descendants.     Your  monarchy  is  old; 

Spanish  •/  j  i 

nieDto"'^'*  my  mission  is  to  rejavenate  it.  Be  full  of  hope  and 
contidence,  therefore,  and  your  descendants  will  pre- 
serve my  memory,  and  say,  'He  was  the  regenerator 
of  our  country.'  " 

The  effect  of  this  pronunciamiento  was  magical. 
The  whole  country,  as  by  one  impulse,  rose  up  in 
arms.  The  Mayor  of  Mostoles,  a  small  village  near 
Madrid,  sent  out  this  bulletin:  "The  country  is  in 
danger;  Madrid  is  perishing  through  the  perfidy  of 
the  French.  All  Spaniards,  come,  and  deliver  usl" 
The  news  of  this  spread  like  wildfire.  Carthagena 
rose  against  the  French  on  May  22.  Valencia,  on 
the  next  day,  proclaimed  Ferdinand  as  the  only 
rightful  ruler  of  Spain.  Two  days  later  the  moun- 
tain district  of  Asturias,  with  a  population  of 
500,000,    declared  war  on   Kapoleon   in   the   name 

All  Spain    o£  the  royal  house.     On  May  26,  Seville  and  San- 

up  in  artas 

tander,  on  opposite  sides  of  the  peninsula,  joined  the 
movement.  The  feast  of  St.  Ferdinand,  on  May  30, 
was  selected  as  a  fitting  day  for  most  of  the  remain- 
ing provinces  to  declare  war  against  the  French. 
Granada,  Corunna,  and  Badajos  took  up  arms;  and 
national  juntas  were  formed.  The  junta  of  Asturias 
sent  emissaries  to  England  to  ask  for  aid.  One  of 
them  was  Viscount  Matarosa,  better  known  as  the 
Count  of  Toreno,  who  has  left  one  of  the  most  faith- 
ful records  of  these  events.  The  junta  of  Asturias 
issued  a  declaration  warning  Spaniards  that  their 
native  country,  their  king,  their  property,  laws, 
liberties,  religion,  yea,  even  their  hope  for  a  better 
world,  were  at  stake.     At  Valencia  every  French- 


1807  Juno  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  249 

man  seen  on  the  streets  was  killed  at  sight.  In 
Valladolid  the  people  erected  a  gibbet  before  the 
residence  of  the  Governor  of  Leon  and  gave  him 
the  choice  whether  he  would  join  their  movement 
or  be  hanged.  In  the  country,  frightful  excesses 
were  committed  on  straggling  French  soldiers. 
The  fourteen  Spanish  provinces  all  rose  against  The  peopja 
France.  The  four  Basque  provinces  alone,  ^bsiiLg  '^*'' 
overrun  by  French  soldiers,  did  not  join  the  move- 
ment. On  June  6,  the  junta  of  Seville  issued  a 
proclamation  in  the  name  of  Spain  and  of  Ferdi- 
nand. Napoleon  was  charged  with  the  criminal  ab- 
duction and  terrorization  of  their  king  and  nobles. 
His  announced  intention  to  impose  the  French  king 
upon  Spam  was  denounced  as  the  worst  "perfidy, 
fraud  and  treachery  that  was  ever  committed  against 
any  nation  or  monarch  by  the  most  barbarous  and 
ambitious  kings."  "War  should  not  cease,"  de- 
clared the  junta,  "until  Ferdinand  and  the  rest  of 
the  royal  family  be  restored  to  their  throne  and 
Spain  relieved  of  the  last  French  soldier."  Anda- 
lusia was  the  province  that  contained  the  most 
Spanish   troops.      They  joined   the  insurrection  at 

^  ^  "^     ''  The  army 

once.  That  circumstance,  with  the  fact  that  the  J^j^^^g^^^jj^ 
Sierra  Morena,  a  wild  mountain  range,  runs  through 
that  region,  made  Andalusia  the  most  formidable 
centre  of  the  rebellion.  The  Marquis  of  Solano, 
commanding  a  Spanish  auxiliary  force  at  Cadiz,  was 
ordered  by  the  junta  to  seize  the  French  squadron 
there.  He  refused  and  was  put  to  death.  His  suc- 
cessor ordered  Admiral  Kosily  to  surrender,  but  the 
French  sailed  to  the  middle  of   the   wide   harbor, 


250 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


Juae  1807 


dered 


where  they  were  out  of  reach  of  guns  and  awaited 
Brfta^in's     aid  from  Dupont.     Before  a  week  had  passed,  the 

aidinvoked ,-»..,  .     •    ,  ^i  i     /^ 

British  ministry,  through  Canning,  sent  assurances 
to  Spain  that  troops  and  money  would  be  furnished. 
Three  hundred  thousand  pounds  in  Spanish  dollars 
were  sent  at  once,  with  a  huge  quantity  of  arms  and 
ammunition.  The  speedy  despatch  of  a  fleet  with 
a- strong  landing  force  was  promised  at  Grijon.  Sir 
Charles  Cotton,  commanding  the  British  naval  forces 
ofiE  the  coasts  of  Spain,  was  ordered  to  render  all  pos- 
sible aid.  Within  a  month,  a  treaty  for  offeusive 
and  defensive  alliance  was  signed  in  Oporto  between 
the  emissaries  of  England  and  Spain.  "Hitherto," 
cried  Sheridan,  leader  of  the  Whig  opposition. 
Immediate  "Bonaparte    has    contended    with    princes    without 

aifl  ren- 

dignity,  numbers  without  ardor,  or  peoples  with- 
out patriotism.  He  has  yet  to  learn  what  it  is  to 
combat  a  people  who  are  animated  by  one  spirit 
against  him."  Tory  and  Whig  alike  held  that 
"never  had  so  happy  an  opportunity  existed  in 
Britain  to  strike  a  bold  stroke  for  the  rescue  of  the 
world."  On  June  15,  Napoleon's  Assembly  of  Nota- 
bles was  convoked  at  Bayonne,  and  accepted  a  con- 
stitution modelled  on  that  of  France.  All  privileges 
of  nobility  were  abolished.  The  Catholic  religion 
was  declared  to  be  the  only  one  permitted  in  Spain. 
Joseph  Bonaparte  received  royal  homage  from  the 
notables,  and  hastened  to  cross  the  Pyrenees.  On 
July  12,  he  arrived  at  Vittoria  with  a  guard  of 
8,000  Italian  soldiers.  His  best  protection  was  the 
forces  of  General  Verdier  posted  along  his  route  in 
Spain.     At  Vittoria  an  attempt  was  made  to  stop 


French 

COll^itltU- 

tion  lor 
Spain 


1808  July  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  251 

Joseph's  progress,  but  his  guards  quickly  sup- 
pressed the  riot.  All  over  the  country,  in  fact, 
the  French  were  engaged  in  suppressing  uprisings 
against    them.     The    trained    veterans    of     France  ^    , 

o  Early 

easily  worsted  the  insurgents  wherever  they  metj^'feats 
them  in  the  open.  General  Verdier  defeated  the 
rebels  without  trouble  at  Logrono,  Fr^re  at  Segovia, 
Lasalle  at  Torquemada,  at  the  bridge  of  Cabezon 
and  before  Valladolid,  where  Gregorio  della  Cuesta 
made  his  troops  fight  with  their  backs  to  the  river. 
The  Aragonese  bands  were  scattered  at  Tudela 
and  Mallen.  In  all  these  engagements  the  French 
losses  were  insignificant,  while  the  peasants  were 
butchered  right  and  left.  In  the  east  and  south  of 
Spain,  on  the  other  hand,  the  French  were  checked. 
Money,  who  was  to  subdue  Valencia,  had  to  come 
to  a  halt  half-way.  General  Duhesme  found  himself 
blocked  in  Barcelona,  and  Lefebvre-Desnouettes  was 
held  in  check  before  Saragossa,  by  Palafox.  In 
Andalusia,  Dupont  had  to  retreat  to  Andujar  before 
the  armies  of  Castanos  and  Granda.  The  sack 
of  Cordova  by  his  troops,  and  the  pillage  of  the 
churches  there,  was  resented  on  the  part  of  the 
Spaniards  by  acts  of  unexampled  ferocity  against  Retaiia. 
the  French.  Every  soldier  found  at  large  was^^,^"^^^ 
killed  by  the  peasants  and  the  sick  and  wounded 
were  mutilated.  The  wells  around  the  French 
camps  were  poisoned.  The  French  grew  to  real- 
ize that  they  had  to  do  with  an  enemy  who  neither 
asked  nor  gave  quarter. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  when  Joseph  entered 
Madrid.     He  was  proclaimed  king  on  July  20.     On 


252  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  JulyfflOB 

the  same  day,  as  it  happened,  the  Janizaries  in  Con- 
stantinople deposed  Sultan  Mustapha.     When  they 
called  for  their  former  Saltan  Selim,  his  dead  body 
revolution  was  filing  before  them.     His  cousin  Mahmoud  was 

in  Turkey 

made  Sultan.  In  Naples,  Murat  was  crowned  King 
of  both  Sicilies  in  Joseph's  stead.  During  Joseph's 
journey  from  the  Pyrenees  the  scales  had  dropped 
from  his  eyes.  To  his  brother  he  wrote:  "No  one 
has  hitherto  told  you  the  truth.  The  fact  is  that 
not  one  single  Spaniard  comes  forward  to  take  part 
with  me.  Fear  does  not  make  me  see  double. 
BonTparto  Siucc  I  havc  been  in  Spain,  I  say  to  myself  every 
aged^*^'  day,  'My  life  is  of  little  value.'  I  am  not  frightened 
by  my  position,  but  it  is  unique  in  history.  I  have 
not  a  single  partisan,"  The  warning  was  lost  od  Na- 
poleon. In  all  this  affair  with  Spain  he  gave  little 
evidence  of  the  great  genius  which  had  hitherto 
distinguished  his  public  conduct.  His  wonted  per- 
spicacity and  ability  to  cope  with  the  situation  in 
advance  of  the  actual  event  changed  into  a  blind= 
ness  of  which  history  offers  but  few  examples. 
From  the  start  he  misunderstood  the  character  of 
the  Spanish  people  and  of  their  peculiar  warfare, 
biumws"'"''!'^^*'^^^  of  centralizing  his  forces  for  a  master- 
n.pain  stroke,  as  he  had  always  done  in  the  past,  he 
scattered  them  over  the  whole  country  in  isolated 
detachments.  So  purblind  was  he  that  he  under- 
took to  direct  all  military  movements  from  home, 
a  thing  which  he  himself  had  so  often  denounced 
as  one  of  the  capital  errors  of  war. 

Instead  of  flying  to  his  eagles  when  they  were 
hard    beset   in    Spain,    the   Emperor   started   on   a 


S808Juiy  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  253 

leisurely  tour  of  inspection  through  the  southern 
provinces  of  France.  In  the  face  of  the  alarming 
information  which  he  had  lately  received  from  his 
brother  and  hard-pressed  generals,  he  dictated  a 
long  despatch,  in  which  he  reviewed  the  military 
situation  as  it  appeared  to  him  from  afar.  To  each 
general  he  pointed  out  the  line  of  conduct  he  should 
take.  Bessieres  was  praised  for  his  brilliant  defeat 
of  25,000  Spaniards  under  Cuesta  and  Blake  at 
Medina  del  Rio  Seco,  on  July  14.     With  no  more  Medina  del 

'  -^  Rio  Seco 

than  20,000  men,  Napoleon  felt  sure  General  Dupont 
could  take  the  offensive  and  overthrow  everything 
before  him.  The  chances  in  Dupont's  favor  were 
estimated  at  more  than  eighty  in  a  hundred.  The 
whole  situation  was  summed  up  in  these  confident 
words:  "There  is  nothing  to  fear  on  the  side  of  Mar- 
shal Bessieres,  nor  in  the  north  of  Castile,  nor  in 
the  kingdom  of  Leon.  There  is  nothing  to  fear 
in  Aragon.  Saragossa  will  fall  some  day,  sooner 
or  later.  There  is  nothing  to  fear  in  Catalonia, 
there  is  nothing  for  the  communication  from  Bur- 
gos to  Bayonne."  To  his  brother  Joseph,  Napoleon 
wrote:  "Be  courageous  and  gay.  Never  doubt  of 
complete  success." 

On   the   day   these   despatches   were  dictated   in  Dupont's* 

defeat 

France,  Napoleon's  favorite,  Dupont,  whom  he  had 
selected  for  the  next  marshalship,  sufEered  a  disas- 
trous defeat  at  Baylen,  and  capitulated  with  his 
whole  army  of  20,000  men.  The  battle  of  Baylen 
was  the  worst  reverse  suffered  by  French  arms  on 
land  in  all  the  many  campaigns  waged  since  1792. 
After  Dupont's  troops  had  pillaged  Cordova  for 


254  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  July  1809 

three  days,  they  fell  back  to  Andujar  before  an  army 
of  8,000  Spanish  regulars  and  20,000  peasants  led  by 
Castanos.  So  despondent  was  Castafios  of  success 
that  he  embarked  his  heavy  artillery  at  Seville,  in- 
tending to  sail  to  Isla  de  L^on  if  Dupont  advanced 
against  him.  Instead  of  that,  Dupont  sent  to  Ma- 
drid for  reinforcements.  His  letter  to  General  Bel- 
Predica-     Hard  was  intercepted.     In  it  he  wrote:   "We  have 

ment  of  ....  ... 

French  on  not  a   momcut   to   losc    lu   Quitting   a   position    in 

theMorena  ^  or 

which  we  cannot  subsist.  For  heaven's  sake  send 
us  prompt  reinforcements  with  medicines  and  lini- 
ment for  the  wounded.  For  the  space  of  a  month, 
the  enemy  has  intercepted  all  our  ammunition  wag- 
ons and  the  provisions  sent  from  Toledo."  When 
Castafios  read  this  despatch,  he  took  heart  and  de- 
termined to  intercept  all  reinforcements.  The  re- 
lieving column  that  Belliard  sent  out  was  too  small, 
and  gave  up  all  attempts  to  reach  Dupont  after  much 
desultory  fighting  in  the  defiles  of  the  Morena.  A 
detachment  of  500  Frenchmen,  which  was  sent  to 
make  a  junction  with  the  relieving  column,  was  cut 
off  to  a  man  by  the  smugglers  of  Granada.  Dupont 
saw  the  Spanish  forces  growing  daily  in  numbers, 
while  his  own  raw  recruits  dropped  under  the  sum- 
mer sun  of  Spain.  Of  his  men,  600  lay  sick  with 
no  medicines  or  ambulances  in  sight.  After  severe 
fighting  on  July  16,  in  which  the  French  found 
themselves  hampered  by  their  immense  wagon 
trains  containing  the  loot  of  Cordova,  Dupont 
determined  to  fight  his  way  through.  On  the 
19th  of  July,  at  three  in  the  morning,  the  French 
army  moved  out  from  the  ferry  of  Mengibar  over 


1808  July  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  256 

tbe  Guadalquivir  Eiver.  They  numbered  20,000 
men.  The  Spaniards  facing  them  had  a  division 
of  9,000  under  Lieutenant-Greneral  Reding,  a  Swiss, 
and  25,000  more  under  Castafios,  De  Compigny,  La 
Penna  and  Jones.  One-half  of  their  fighting  men 
were  peasants.  The  brunt  of  the  engagement  that 
ensued  fell  on  Compigny  and  Eeding.  The  first 
shock  of  -ihe  French  was  so  furious  that  the  Spanish 
vanguard  suffered  fearful  losses.  But  the  infantry 
of  the  line  held  its  ground  and  their  artillery  was 
so  well  served  that  forty  French  guns  were  dis- 
mounted. The  French  advances  in  the  face  of  a 
galling  fire  were  renewed  throughout  the  forenoon,  Bayien*' 
and  in  the  end  Dupont  himself  led  a  general  assault 
on  the  Sj-anish  batteries.  At  this  point,  another 
Spanish  division  under  Greneral  La  Penna  arrived 
and  bore  in  on  the  French  from  another  quarter. 
The  Swiss  regiments  serving  under  the  French  col- 
ors went  over  to  the  Spaniards.  At  noon,  Dupont, 
wounded  and  despairing,  sent  a  white  flag  with  a 
request  for  an  armistice  wherein  to  arrange  for 
a  capitulation. 

While  the  generals  on  both  sides  were  conferring, 
Vedel  brought  a  French  division  from  Guaroman, 
where  he  had  halted  for  several  hours  within  hear- 
ing of  the  roar  of  battle.  Coming  upon  the  Spanish 
rear,  be  attacked  Reding's  division  and  captured  two 
guns  with  about  fifteen  hundred  prisoners.  Then 
an  aide-de-camp  from  Dupont  ordered  him  to  cease 
firing.  Surrender  of  all  the  French  troops  was  de- 
manded. Vedel  expressed  his  preference  for  a  joint 
attack  on  Reding,  and  like  counsel  was  given  by 


266  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  July  1808 

General  Prive.  Dupont  suggested,  by  way  of  com- 
promise, that  Vedel  give  up  tiis  Spanish  prisoners 
and  retire  out  of  their  reach.  Thereupon  the  Span- 
ish generalissimo,  Castanos,  threatened  Dupont  with 
a  general  massacre  if  Yedel  were  not  recalled.  Un- 
der orders  from  Dupont,  Vedel  came  in  and  sur- 
^fsu^ln-  I'endered.  Eighteen  thousand  Frenchmen  laid  down 
^^'"  their  arms  on  a  Spanish  promise  that  the  oflficers 

were  to  be  paroled  and  their  baggage  left  undis- 
turbed, while  the  common  soldiers  were  to  be  rb- 
turned  to  France.  Villontreys  went  into  the  Mo- 
rena,  and  gathering  up  the  French  detachments 
as  far  as  Toledo,  brought  them  in  as  voluntary 
prisoners.  The  capitulation,  shameful  in  itself,  was 
Spaniard's  shamefully  broken.     The  French  troops,  instead  of 

breach  of 

faith  being  returned  to  France,  were  imprisoned  in  gal- 
leys. Others  were  exported  to  the  desert  island  of 
Cabrera.  A  number  were  so  maltreated  that  they 
died,  and  at  Labrixe  more  than  eighty  of  the  pa- 
roled officers  were  shot  down  on  the  market-place. 
Dupont  himself,  with  all  his  staff,  was  allowed  to 
return  to  be  court-martialled  in  France,  but  General 
Priv^,  who  had  protested  against  the  surrender,  was 
left  in  the  hands  of  the  Spaniards. 

Marshal         Marshal  Money  was  no  more  successful  in  Valen- 

Moncy  8  •' 

cia  than  Dupont  in  Andalusia,  though  he  escaped 
capture  and  succeeded  in  reaching  Madrid  after 
heavy  losses.  His  attempt  to  take  Valencia  by 
storm  had  resulted  disastrously.  Of  his  division 
of  15,000  men,  only  10,000  returned,  with  150  wag- 
ons carrying  the  wounded.  The  Spaniards  sent 
1,600  of  his  men  to  Carthagena. 


losses 


1808  July  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  257 

The  campaign  of  Aragon  was  equally  glorious  Ca^p^'&° 
for  the  Spanish  patriots.  Saragossa,  then  a  city 
of  50,000,  had  risen  against  the  French  two  hoars 
after  Napoleon's  proclamation  was  read  aloud  by 
the  town  crier.  Palafox,  an  officer  of  the  guards 
and  one  of  Ferdinand's  retinue  who  had  escaped 
from  Bayonne,  assumed  command.  He  was  aided 
by  Tio  Jorge  and  Tio  Marin,  two  simple  citizens. 

Surrounded  by  a  low  brick  wall,  Saragossa  pre- 
sented no  regular  defences  and  possessed  very  few 
guns,  but  the  houses  were  massively  built  and  the 
great  monasteries  and  convents,  forty  in  number, 
served  as  citadels.  The  Convent  of  San  Jos^,  cov- 
ered by  the  torrent  Huerba,  and  Monte  Torrero,  a 
high  hill,  served  for  towers.  Palafox  was  beaten 
in  a  succession  of  preliminary  fights  in  front  of 
Saragossa,  when  Lefebvre  with  his  French  army 
was  marching  on  the  heroic  town.  By  the  middle 
of  July,  the  French  drove  Palafox  from  the  olive 
groves  and  country  houses  between  the  convents  of 
San  Josd  and  Monte  Torrero.  The  city  was  closely  oi'^seja? 
invested.  Two  French  companies  penetrated  into^°^^* 
the  street  of  Santa  Bngracia.  The  French  could 
have  taken  the  town  had  the  soldiers  not  feared  an 
ambush  and  retired.  During  the  night,  the  citizens 
threw  "up  defences  and  put  the  whole  city  in  con- 
dition to  withstand  assault.  In  the  meanwhile, 
Palafox  recrossed  the  Ebro  at  Pina,  and  joining 
Baron  Versarge  at  Belchite,  gathered  some  8,000 
scattered  Spanisti  insurgents.  With  them  he  gained 
the  Xalon  in  the  rear  of  the  French  and  made  an 
attempt  to  relieve  Saragossa  by  a  diversion  from 


258  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  Aug.  18O8 

chat  quarter.     While  still  on  the  march  his  forces 

were  routed  by  two  French  regiments.     Lefebvre, 

Tor"rero      during  the  interval,  took  Monte  Torrero  by  assault. 

taken 

Palafox  with  his  beaten  troops  hastened  back  to 
Saragossa  and  entered  the  city  just  in  time  to  see 
the  French  storm  the  convents  of  San  Jos^  and  of 
the  Capuchins.  Jioth  convents,  though  occupied 
and  fortified  by  the  French,  were  again  relinquished 
by  them.  Presently  Lefebvre  received  orders  to 
join  Bessi^res  on  the  Ebro  with  one  of  his  bri- 
gades. General  Verdier  remained  in  command  with 
10,000  French  soldiers.  This  general,  though  har- 
assed by  small  bodies  of  insurgents  all  around  him, 
pressed  the  siege  more  closely.  Daring  July  the 
French  made  several  successful  assaults  on  the  gates 
of  El  Carmen  and  the  Portillo.  It  was  on  one  of 
Heroism  of  *^®^®  occasious  that  Augustiua  Saragossa,  a  young 
a  woman  ^^j^^j^  ^f  twcuty-two,  is  Said  to  have  leaped  on  a 
cannon  and  to  have  discharged  it  in  the  face  of  the 
enemy,  after  which  she  recorded  a  vow  that  she 
would  serve  the  battery  until  the  bitter  end,  be  it 
her  own  death  or  the  relief  of  Saragossa.  She  was 
decorated  with  a  medal  and  henceforth  received  the 
full  pay  of  a  regular  gunner.  Shortly  after  this  the 
besieged  Spaniards  tried  to  retake  Monte  Torrero. 
Nearly  one  thousand  Spanish  regular  soldiers  suc- 
ceeded in  fighting  their  way  into  the  city.  The 
French,  too,  were  increased  to  15,000  by  the  arrival 
of  two  veteran  regiments.  On  August  3,  the  city  was 
bombarded  by  all  the  French  batteries  from  morning 
to  night.  The  Spanish  powder  magazine  was  blown 
up.     The  next  day  the  Convent  of  Santa  Engracia 


1808 Aug.  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  259 

was  stormed  by  the  French.  A  detachment  of  Desperate 
French  soldiers  got  into  the  old  Moorish  quarter  nghimg 
and  terrible  street  fighting  ensued.  Soldiers,  citi- 
zens, monks,  women  and  children  took  part  in  the 
hand-to-hand  struggle,  and  the  French  were  assailed 
on  all  sides.  A  squadron  of  French  cavalry  charged 
through  the  narrow  streets.  They  got  entangled  in 
the  Arco  de  Cineja,  a  crooked  street  with  archways, 
and  were  cut  to  pieces.  During  the  tumult  the  hos- 
pital for  the  insane  was  set  on  fire  and  the  maniacs 
rushed  out  into  the  thick  of  the  fight.  In  another 
part  of  the  city,  the  French  had  been  victorious,  but 
lost  all  by  stopping  to  plunder.  The  Saragossonese 
set  fire  to  the  convent  of  San  Francisco  and  drove 
the  scattered  French  into  the  fire.  At  close  of  day 
the  French  still  held  one  side  of  the  Cosso,  one 
of  the  great  thoroughfares  of  Saragossa,  while  the 
citizens  were  barricaded  on  the  other  side.  Here  the 
most  murderous  fighting  was  carried  on.  The  con- 
tending forces  shot  at  each  other  across  the  street 
with  muskets  and  cannon,  and  gutters  were  filled 
with  dead  bodies.  After  several  days  of  this,  the 
French  sent  a  summons  for  surrender.  They  re- 
ceived the  laconic  answer:  "Guerra  al  cuchillo — 
War  to  the  knife!"     Slowly  the  French  were  mak- 

-'  French 

ing  headway  when  orders  came  to  General  Verdier^fgll'^* 
to  raise  the  siege  and  to  fall  back  on  Larona.     The 
French  retired,  pursued  by  Palafox's  forces  as  far 
as  to  Navarre. 

In  Catalonia,  the  small  town  of  Gerona  defended  The  de- 

•  T~v     1  A    •         fence  of 

itself  With  equal  success  against  Duhesme.     After Oerona 
a  siege  of  a  fortnight,  during  which  400  bombs  and 


A   HISTORY  OF   THE  Aug.  1808 

hand  grenades  were  dropped  into  the  town  on  one 
single  night,  the  French  were  forced  to  retreat  by  a 
sortie  of  the  Geronese.  Duhesme  had  to  fall  back 
on  Barcelona,  leaving  his  artillery  and  ammunition 
behind  him. 

At  Madrid  the  news  of  these  disasters  caused  con- 
sternation. King  Joseph  had  reigned  but  one  week 
when  Dupont  surrendered  at  Baylen.  Joseph  called 
a  council  of  war.  It  was  proposed  to  concentrate  all 
the  French  force  at  Madrid  to  fall  upon  the  Spanish 
armies  one  by  one  as  they  advanced  to  the  capital, 
joslph       But  Joseph  had  enough.     He  left  Madrid  on  July 

leaves 

Madrid      29,  just  nine  days  after  his  entry  into  the  city. 

A  proclamation  was  published  that  "the  French 
army  would  seek  healthier  quarters  where  the  air 
was  better  and  purer  drinking  water  could  be  ob- 
tained." On  the  same  day  that  Madrid  was  thus 
abandoned  an  English   army  of  16,000,   under  Sir 

Wellington  Arthur  Wellesley  (Wellington),  landed  in  Portugal 

lands  in 

Portufe'ai  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mondego,  and  marched  to 
Leirra,  sixty  miles  from  Lisbon.  King  Joseph  ia 
the  meanwhile  retreated  over  Vittoria  and  Segovia 
to  Burgos.  This  town  was  made  the  rendezvous  off 
the  whole  French  army.  Before  leaving  Madrid  the 
French  plundered  the  public  treasury  and  carried  off 
all  the  crown  jewels  of  the  royal  family.  Thence 
arose  a  Spanish  saying:  "The  crown  of  Spain  was 
too  big  for  Joseph's  head,  so  he  put  it  in  his 
pouch." 

In  Portugal,  Marshal  Junot  was  unable  to  bring 
more  than  13,000  men  into  the  field  against  the  En- 
glish.   Aware  that  General  Wellesley  wourd  shortly 


1808  Aug.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  261 

be  reinforced  from  the  sea,  Junot  determined  not 
to  await  a  joint  attack  on  Lisbon.  He  advanced  to 
Vimeiro.  There  a  pitched  battle  was  fought,  at  the  vime?ro 
end  of  which  the  French  retired  in  good  order, 
Junot's  forces  could  scarcely  escape  capture,  but 
at  this  point  General  Wellesley  was  replaced  by 
Sir  Harry  Bourrard.  This  commander  entered  into 
negotiations  for  a  peaceful  evacuation  of  Portugal. 
In  the  convention  of  Cintra,  signed  August  30,  it 
was  agreed  that  the  French  troops  should  be  shipped 
to  France  at  the  expense  of  the  British  government. 
A  Russian  fleet  under  Admiral  Siniavin,  riding  at  ^"et^'^^^ge^ 
anchor  in  the  Tagus,  fell  a  prey  to  the  British.  The 
French,  during  their  embarkation,  had  to  be  pro- 
tected by  British  bayonets  against  excesses  on  the 
part  of  the  enraged  people  of  Lisbon.  Special  pro- 
tests were  made  against  letting  the  French  carry  oS 
the  rich  loot  they  had  gathered  while  in  Portugal. 
Yet  Junot  succeeded  in  carrying  away  with  him  the 
famous  manuscript  Bible  of  Belem,  which  had  been 
presented  to  the  monastery  of  the  Hieronymites  by 
Pope  Julius  II.  In  later  years  these  precious  vol- 
umes had  to  be  bought  back  by  Portugal  at  the 
price  of  80,000  francs. 

The  convention  of  Cintra  afforded  little  glory  forfio°^o°" 
either  side.  When  on  the  point  of  court-martialling 
Junot  for  his  capitulation,  Napoleon  learned  that 
the  British  military  had  ordered  their  own  generals, 
Bourrard,  Wellesley,  Moore,  and  Dalrymple,  to  be 
brought  to  trial  for  permitting  Junot  to  escape 
them. 

While  Junot's  troops  were  embarking  for  France, 


262  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  Aug.  1808 

another  more  famous  embarkation  was  made  in 
Denmark.  There  10,000  Spanish  soldiers,  enrolled 
under  the  French  eagles  of  Bernadotte,   with  their 

^o^ana's  captain,  the  Marquis  of  Eomana,  revolted  against 
the  French  and  seized  the  islands  of  Nyborg  and 
Langland.  Having  established  communication  with 
the  English,  they  embarked  on  a  British  cruiser. 
By  the  middle  of  August  they  were  transported  to 
Spain,  with  arms  and  ammunition,  to  join  the  cause 
of  their  countrymen.  Of  the  entire  Spanish  forces 
in  northern  Europe,  8,000  had  to  be  left  behind. 
Eomana's  exploit  won  him  a  generalship  in  Spain, 
but  in  French  annals  it  has  gone  down  as  the  trea- 
son of  Eomana. 

The  consequences  of  the  French  reverses  in  Spain 
were  far-reaching.  It  broke  the  spell  that  the  arms 
of  Napoleon,  hitherto  invincible,  had  cast  over  the 
spirit  of  his  cowed  enemies.  In  Austria,  the  Minis- 
try of  Stadion,  aided  by  Archduke  Charles,  pushed 
forward  the  new  armaments  with  fresh  vigor.  The 
peasants  of  the  Tyrol,  oppressed  under  the  new  Ba- 
varian rule,  grew  restive.  In  Prussia  the  younger 
elements  of  the  nation  began  to  seethe.  "I  do  not 
see,"  said  Bliicher,  "why  we  should  not  think  our- 

anfpte^of  selves  as  good  as  the  Spaniards."  Stein's  Ministry 
adopted  a  policy  of  resistance  to  Napoleon,  and 
Scharnhorst  infused  the  same  spirit  into  the  army. 
The  Sultan  of  Turkey,  apprehensive  of  new  French 
and  Eussian  aggressions,  showed  inclination  to  throw 
in  his  lot  with  England.  Even  the  Dey  of  Morocco, 
AH  Mahomet,  felt  called  upon  to  issue  a  proclama- 
laon  of  sympathy  with  the  Spanish  cause:  "Arouse, 


1808  Aug.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  263 

Christians!  Ah,  French  dog,  why  did  you  give ^ *^«0j"8*^ 
opium  to  the  Christians  to  eflFect  your  entry  into 
their  country  without  exciting  apprehension,  and  to 
come  before  long  to  deprive  me  also  of  my  throne  ? 
Why  did  you  not  enter  sword  in  hand,  that  your 
objects  might  be  seen,  and  the  Christians  might  cut 
off  your  head  ?  Christians,  attack  these  dogs  and 
defend  your  kingdom,  for  the  son  of  my  friend 
Charles!  Let  Seville  be  firm  and  attack  that  ab- 
horred currish  race,  and  Allah  will  assist  you!  Let 
the  Englishmen  help  likewise!  All  nations  heed 
this,  so  ye  may  know  who  the  French  dog  is,  that 
all  may  arise  against  him  with  the  blessing  of 
Allah!" 
In  England,  the  Tories  ioined  with  the  Whigs  in  Great 

^  1  i  o  Britain 

cheering  the  Spanish  revolution.  It  was  resolved  aroused 
to  make  the  most  of  the  foothold  gained  in  Spain 
by  placing  a  strong  army  under  the  command  of  Sir 
John  Moore.  For  America  the  upheaval  in  Spain 
meant  corresponding  upheavals  throughout  Central 
and  South  America.  The  United  States  caught  the 
fever.  President  Jefferson  saw  in  this  an  opportu- 
nity to  offset  the  serious  consequences  of  his  policy 
of  non-intercourse  with  Europe.  Negotiations  were 
set  on  foot  to  obtain  the  Floridas  from  Spain.  Na-  fo^^unes  m 
poleon,  treating  all  Spanish  possessions  as  if  they  ^™®"*^* 
were  his  own,  offered  to  cede  Florida  to  the  Ameri- 
can Union,  on  condition  that  the  United  States  join 
in  his  war  with  England.  "War  exists  in  fact  be- 
tween England  and  the  United  States,"  declared 
Napoleon,  in  a  famous  letter,  transmitted  by  Cham- 
pigny.     "It  was  declared  practically  when  England 


264  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  A.ug.  1808 

published  her  decree  against  American  commerce." 
General  Armstrong,  at  the  American  legation  in 
Paris,  was  informed  that  "shoaid  England  make 
any  movement  against  the  Floridas,  Napoleon  would 
not  take  it  ill  if  the  United  States  moved  troops 
there  for  their  defence."  When  Napoleon  suffered 
disaster  in  Spain,  Jefferson  at  once  saw^  a  new  op- 
de^|L1i''on  portunity  for  America.  On  August  9,  he  wrote  to 
one  of  his  Cabinet  Ministers:  "I  am  glad  to  see 
that  Spain  is  likely  to  give  Bonaparte  employment. 
Tant  mieux  pour  nous.  .  .  .  Should  England 
make  up  with  us  while  Bonaparte  continues  at  war 
with  Spain,  a  moment  may  occur  when  we  may, 
without  danger  or  commitment  with  either  France 
or  England,  seize  this  country  to  our  limits  of 
Louisiana  as  of  right,  and  the  residue  of  the  Flori- 
das as  reprisal  for  spoliation.  It  is  our  duty  to 
have  an  eye  to  this  in  stationing  our  new  recruits 
and  armed  vessels,  so  as  to  be  ready,  if  Congress 
authorizes  it,  to  strike  in  a  moment."  Shortly  af- 
terward the  Cabinet  debated  the  subject.  Jefferson 
recorded  this  memorandum  of  his  attitude  toward 
the  Spanish  colonies  in  America:  "If  you  remain 
under  the  dominion  of  the  kingdom  and  family  of 
Spain,  we  are  contented;  but  we  should  be  ex- 
tremely unwilling  to  see  you  pass  under  the  domin- 
ion or  ascendency  of  France  or  England."  Here  is 
to  be  seen  the  germ  of  the  famous  American  attitude 
toward  the  Old  World,  enunciated  in  later  years  by 
Monroe.  In  truth,  Jefferson  and  his  Southern  sup- 
porters cared  little  for  the  cause  of  Spanish  free^ 
dom.      The  independence  of  the  Spanish  colonies 


Forecast 
of  MoQroe 
Doctrine 


1808  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  266 

from  European  rule  in  any  form  was  Jefferson's 
steadfast  ideal.  Throughout  South  America,  in 
Mexico,  Cuba,  and  in  the  Floridas,  meanwhile, 
the  Spanish  patriots  were  eager  to  do  their  part 
for  the  mother  country.  The  French  settlers  were  sufferin«i 
driven  out  of  Porto  Eico,  Deseada  and  Maria  Ga- settlers 
lante.  In  Cuba,  the  Spanisti  governor  had  difficulty 
in  preventing  a  massacre  of  the  French  at  Havana 
and  Santiago  de  Cuba.  All  Florida  was  seething. 
Jefferson's  non-committal  attitude  toward  this  move- 
ment gave  rise  to  a  suspicion  in  America  that  the 

President    was    secretly    leagued    with    Napoleon. 

.  Opposition 

This    lost    him    many    supporters    in    the    North,  ^^^f^^. 

The  New  England  conscience  declared  itself  with 

fervor  for  the  Spanish  cause.     Northern  opposition 

to  the  continued  immolation  of  American  trade  on 

the  altar  of  Jefferson's  embargo  grew  exceedingly 

bitter.     A  young  New  England  poet,  William  Cul- Bryant'* 

len  Bryant,  then  barely  in  his  teens,  published  what^®*"^®* 

he  called  "The  Embargo:  a  Satire  against  Thomas 

Jefferson": 

"And  thou,  the  scorn  of  every  patriot  name, 
Thy  country's  ruin  and  her  council's  shame. 

Go,  wretch !     Resign  the  Presidential  chair. 

Disclose  thy  secret  measures,  foul  or  fair; 

Go  search  with  curious  eye  for  horned  frogs 

'Mid  the  wild  waste  of  Louisiana  bogs. 

Or,  where  Ohio  rolls  his  turbid  stream, 

Dig  for  huge  bones,  thy  glory  and  thy  theme!'* 

In  later  life  Bryant  would  have  given  much  to 
suppress  this  boyish  libel,  as  unfortunate  in  its  con- 
ception as  it  was  lacking  in  felicity  of  versification. 

XlXth  Century— Vol.  1—12 


266 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


Summer  1808 


Yet  Bryant's  verses   reflected  the  spirit  then   pre- 
vailing in  certain  parts  of  America.     The  cost  of 
J^ufuor  the  embargo  to  the  nation  had  been  fearful.     At  a 

American  -r»         •  i  r    rr 

embargo  momcnt's  noticc,  President  Jefferson  and  his  follow- 
ers in  Congress  had  bidden  all  ocean  commerce  to 
cease.  Every  ship  was  withdrawn  from  the  sea  and 
merchants  closed  their  doors.  American  products 
sank  in  value.  Wheat  dropped  from  two  dollars  to 
seventy-five  cents  a  bushel.  Other  produce  became 
unsalable,  such  as  cotton,  tobacco,  rice  and  timber. 
Artisans  ceased  working,  laborers  dropped  their 
tools  and  wages  stopped.  Every  imported  article 
rose  in  price.  Thousands  of  sailors  hung  idle 
around  the  wharves.  A  British  traveller,  Lam- 
bert, visiting  New  York  in  1808,  sent  home  this 
description:  "The  port,  indeed,  was  full  of  ship- 
ping, but  they  were  dismantled  and  laid  up.  Their 
decks  were  cleared,  their  hatches  fastened  down, 
and  scarcely  a  sailor  was  to  be  found  on  board. 
Not  a  box,  bale,  cask,  barrel  or  package  was  to  be 
seen  upon  the  wharves.  Many  of  the  counting- 
houses  were  shut  up  or  advertised  to  be  let,  and 
the  few  solitary  merchants,  clerks,  porters,  and  la- 
borers that  were  to  be  seen  were  walking  about 
with  their  hands  in  their  pockets.  The  coffee- 
houses were  almost  empty.  The  streets  near  the 
waterside  were  all  but  deserted.  The  grass  had 
begun  to  grow  upon  the  wharves."  In  the  South 
the  effects  of  the  embargo  were  felt  the  worst.  To- 
bacco, rice  and  cotton  were  almost  worthless,  yet 
400,000  negro  slaves  had  to  be  supported.  Jeffer- 
son's  own    Slate,    Virginia,    sunk    into    stagnation. 


guffering 
in  tlie 
South 


1808  Summer  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  267 

The  President's  private  family  fortune  was  involved 
in  the  general  ruin. 

By  the  time  Jefferson  was  ready  to  hand  over  the 
reins  of  power  to  his  chosen  party  successor,  Madi- 
son, the  political  consequences  of  the  embargo  act^^erican 
made  themselves  teit.  !New  England  was  lost  to  upheaval 
Jefferson's  party.  After  the  spring  elections  and 
during  summer,  Massachusetts  declared  for  Federal- 
ism. Gallatin,  who,  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
knew  best  the  difficulties  created  by  the  embargo, 
began  to  despair.  Early  in  summer  he  wrote: 
"From  present  appearances  the  Federalists  will 
turn  us  out  by  the  4th  of  March  next.  I  think 
that  Vermont  is  lost.  New  Hampshire  is  in  a  bad 
way,  and  Pennsylvania  is  extremely  doubtful." 
And  again:  "If  propositions  from  Great  Britain 
or  other  events  do  not  put  it  in  our  power  to  raise 
the  embargo  before  the  1st  of  October,  we  shall  lose 
the  Presidential  election.  I  think  that  at  this  mo- 
ment the  Western  States,  Virginia,  South  Carolina, 
and  part  of  Georgia  are  the  only  sound  States." 
Nothing  saved  Jefl'erson's  party  but  the  fact  that 
the  opponents  of  the  government  divided  their 
forces  between  three  candidates — Clinton,  Monroe 
and  Pinckney.     James  Madison  was  elected  Presi- Madiaon 

fourth 

dent  and  George  C.  Clinton,  as  the  second  strong-  President 
est  candidate,  was  re-elected  to  the  Vice-Presidency. 
The  Federalist  votes   had   risen    from   fourteen   to 
forty -seven  votes. 

The  consequences  of  the  embargo,  while  by  no 
means  so  disastrous  in  England,  were  serious  enough 
to  be  made  the  subject  of  Parliamentary  inquiry. 


268  Jt    HISTORY    OF    THE  Sept.  1808 


Comments  The   Ministrv  was   driven    to   admit  that  "loss  to 

on  Amen-  •' 

^g^'     America  was  loss  to  Great  Britain,  just  as  the  pros- 
perity of  the   United  States  had  meant  prosperity 
for  the  mother  country."     Napoleon  took  the  same 
view,     in  his  report  on  foreign  relations,  September 
1,    1808,    he   expressed    approval   of   the   embargo: 
"The   Americans — This    people,   who  placed   their 
fortune,  their    prosperity    and    almost    their    exist 
ence    in    commerce,    have    given    the    example    o 
a  great   and   courageous    sacrifice.      By   a   genera 
embargo,  they  have  interdicted  all  commercial  ex 
change,  rather  than  shamefully  submit  to  that  trib 
ute  which  the  English  pretend   to  impose  on  the 
shipping  of  all  nations." 

The  aspect  of  other  foreign  affairs  appeared  less 
satisfactory  to  Napoleon.  The  new  military  reforms 
that  were  under  way  in  Austria  and  Prussia  gave 
rise  to  serious  apprehension.  The  alliance  with  Kus- 
sia  likew^ise  seemed  shaky.  To  Emperor  Francis 
of  Austria,  Napoleon  wrote  a  remonstrance  against 
all  attempts  at  further  hostility,  with  this  threaten- 
ing conclusion:  "All  that  you  have  now,  you  have 
solely  through  my  goodwill."  On  September  8, 
he  concluded  a  new  convention  between  France  and 

further      Prussia.      The    Prussian    army   was   reduced    from 

bumbled 

60,000  to  40,000.  The  war  indemnity  still  due 
to  France  was  declared  to  be  145,000,000  francs. 
This,  in  the  face  of  the  Prince  of  Prussia's  protest 
that  19,000,000  only  remained  to  be  paid!  Until 
the  final  payment  of  the  indemnity.  Prince  William 
of  Prussia  undertook  to  remain  in  France.  The 
Prussian  strongholds  of  Glogau,  Stettin  and  Kus- 


1808 Sipt.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  269 

trin  were  to  remain  in  French  hands,  garrisoned  by 
10,000  men  at  Prussian  expense.  Such  were  the 
hard  conditions  imposed  at  a  time  that  the  Prussian 
revenues  amounted  to  386,000  thalers,  while  the 
public  expenses  ran  up  to  two  and  a  half  millions. 
Besides  this,  Napoleon  exacted  that  seven  military 
roads  were  to  run  through  Prussia,  and  the  region 
around  Magdeburg  was  to  be  ceded  to  France. 
After   this   convention    had    been    duly    signed    at 

-  •  r   trt      •     1      -Kr      •  Prussian 

Paris,  the  resignation  of  Stein  s  Ministry  was  only  Ministry 

*-"  %i  J  distnisaed 

a  question  of  time.  Stein  had  become  persona 
ingrata  with  Napoleon  since  one  of  his  confidential 
despatches  to  the  Prince  of  Wittgenstein  had  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  the  French,  In  this  letter  Stein 
wrote  under  date  of  August  15,  1808:  "The  exasper- 
ation in  Germany  increases  daily.  It  must  be  en- 
couraged and  stimulated.  The  affairs  of  Spain  are 
making  a  profound  impression.  They  prove  what 
ought  long  since  to  have  been  foreseen,"  etc.  Na- 
poleon had  this  letter  printed  in  the  "Moniteur" 
with  this  comment:  "The  King  of  Prussia  may  be 
pitied  for  having  Ministers  who  are  as  unskilful  as 
they  are  perverse." 

Stein  asked  for  his  dismissal.  For  a  while  his 
Ministry  lingered  on.  On  September  11,  Napo- 
leon wrote  to  Soult:  "I  have  demanded  that  Stein  Expulsion 

of  Ministar 

be    expelled     from    the    Ministry.      Otherwise    the^^^"^ 
King   of    Prussia   shall   not   re-enter  possession  of 
his    States.      I    have    placed    Stein's   property   in 
Westphalia   under  sequestration." 

For  Napoleon  much  depended  now  on  the  attitude 
of  Russia.     To  clear  up  the  situation,  he  arranged 


Erfurt 


270  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Sept.  1808 

for  a  personal  interview  with  the  Czar,  to  be  held  at 
JDrfurt.  It  was  to  be  made  a  State  affair,  attended 
by  all  the  princes  of  the  Confederation  of  the  Rhine. 
On  September  27,  almost  simultaneously  with  the 
establishment  of  a  supreme  Spanish  junta  at  Aran- 
juez,  the  princes  met  at  Erfurt.  The  departure  of 
Alexander  from  St.  Petersburg,  and  of  Napoleon 
from  Paris,  was  calculated  to  a  nicety,  so  that  the 
two  might  arrive  on  the  same  day.  Napoleon  took 
pains  to  reach  Erfurt  first  in  order  to  welcome 
Alexander  a  few  miles  beyond  the  town.  Through- 
out the  festivities  that  followed  he  had  Alexander 
placed  at  his  right  to  show  that  he  was  receiving 
him  on  his  own  soil.  All  the  expenses  of  this  occa- 
ingof  sion  were  paid  from  the  French  civil  list.  Die  tol- 
len  Tage  (The  mad  days)  at  Erfurt,  as  the  Germans 
called  them,  lasted  three  weeks.  Among  those  who 
attended  were  the  Kings  of  Saxony,  Bavaria,  and 
Wurtemberg,  the  Prince  Primate,  the  Archduke  of 
Baden,  the  Dukes  of  Saxony,  and  many  minor 
princes.  Emperor  Francis  of  Austria  was  not  in- 
vited. Nor  did  Napoleon  heed  the  hints  of  Metter- 
nich,  the  Austrian  Ambassador  in  Paris,  that  he 
be  bidden  to  attend.  To  gain  some  information  of 
what  went  on.  Emperor  Francis  sent  Baron  de  Vin- 
cent, a  friend  of  Talleyrand,  to  deliver  an  ostensi- 
ble letter  of  goodwill  to  both  the  emperors.  Erfurt 
was  so  filled  with  notables  that  a  French  officer  of 
the  guard,  so  the  story  has  it,  once  stopped  a  drum- 
beat salute  to  a  passing  German  prince  with  the 
words:  "Taisez  vous,  ce  n'est  qu'un  roil"  For 
the  benefit  of  the  invited  guests  the  entire  Comedie 


1808 Sept  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  271 

Frangaise  played  classic  dramas  to  a  pit  full  of 
royalties.  On  the  first  of  these  occasions  Alexan- 
der repeated  to  Napoleon  the  line  from  CEdipus: 
"The  friendship  of  a  great  man  is  a  gift  of  the 
gods."  Of  mutual  compliments  there  was  no  end. 
In  the  presence  of  the  Czar,  Napoleon  decorated  the 
officers  of  the  regiment  who  had  distinguished  them- 
selves in  the  campaign  against  Russia.  Prince  Wil- g,fi's'ts^°'^'* 
liam  of  Prussia  was  bidden  to  attend  a  rabbit  hunt 
on  the  battlefield  of  Jena. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  events  of  those  days 
was  the  meeting  of  Napoleon  and  Goethe.  Tbe 
great  German  poet  had  just  finished  the  first  part 
of  his  "Faust."  Unlike  his  contemporaries,  Fichte, 
Schleiermacher,  Koerner,  Rueckert  and  Von  Arndt, 
whose  writings  at  this  time  were  all  intensely  patri- 
otic, Goethe  was  an  open  admirer  of  Napoleon-. 
Bonaparte  in  his  turn  admired  Goethe.  When 
Bonaparte  sailed  to  Egypt,  Goethe's  early  master- 
piece, "The  Sorrows  of  Werther, "  had  accompanied 
him.  In  later  years  the  same  book  served  to  lighten 
Napoleon's  solitude  at  St.  Helena.     The  two  men,  goetheand 

r  '  Napoleon 

standing  each  in  his  way  on  the  pinnacle  of  genius 
and  of  egotism,  met  as  equals.  "Vous  ^tes  un 
homme.  Monsieur  de  Goethe,"  said  Napoleon  as  he 
decorated  him  with  the  cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor. 
"Voila  un  homme,"  remarked  Goethe  to  his  neigh- 
Dor.  Previous  to  this,  the  poet  had  written  a  hymn 
of  praise  to  Napoleon,  in  which  he  sang: 

"Doubts,  that  have  baffled  thousanda,  he  has  solved; 
Ideas,  o'er  which  centuries  have  brooded, 
His  giant  mind  intuitively  compassed." 


272 


A   HISTORY    OF   THE 


Oct.  1808 


Goethe's 
later  im- 
pressions 


Goethe  found  Napoleon,  at  close  range,  more 
admirable  than  ever.  He  found  that  the  French 
emperor  knew  the  classic  drama  "down  to  the  mi- 
nutest details."  His  observations  on  Werther  were 
the  best  critique  yet  vouchsafed  to  Goethe.  To  the 
end  of  his  days,  the  poet  admitted  the  justice  of 
Napoleon's  criticisms.  Napoleon's  suggestion  to 
Goethe  to  write  a  new  drama  on  Julius  Caesar,  which 
might  be  an  improvement  on  Shakespeare's  tragedy, 
flattered  the  German  poet.  Shortly  afterward  he 
wrote  a  letter  to  Cotta:  "I  confess  gladly  that  there 
is  nothing  more  elevating  or  more  gratifying  that 
could  have  happened  to  me  than  this  meeting  with 
the  French  emperor,  and  the  manner  of  it.  Never 
before  have  I  found  so  sympathetic  a  listener,  who 
met  me,  if  I  may  use  the  expression,  so  thoroughly 
as  an  eqaal."  Goethe  met  Napoleon  early  in  Octo- 
ber. A  week  later,  at  a  court  ball  in  Weimar,  Na- 
Napoieou  poleou  met  another  famous  German  poet,  Wieland. 
While  the  Czar  was  exciting  the  admiration  of  all 
by  his  graceful  dancing.  Napoleon  drew  the  old  poet 
into  a  corner,  and  talked  to  him  alone  for  an  hour 
and  a  half.  An  interesting  record  of  this  conversa- 
tion has  been  given  by  Wieland:  "Napoleon  saw, 
notwithstanding  my  wretched  celebrity,  tliat  I  was 
a  simple  unassuming  old  man.  To  leave  a  lasting 
good  impression  on  me,  at  least  so  it  appeared  to 
me,  he  assumed  on  the  instant  that  disguise  which 
he  knew  would  accomplish  his  purpose.  In  all  my 
life,  I  never  saw  a  more  simple,  quiet,  gentle  and 
unassuming  mother's  son  of  a  man.  He  talked 
with  me  like  an  old  acquaintance,  as  one  of  his  set. 


land 


1808  Oct,  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  273 

From  his  utterances  on  poetry,  it  was  clear  to  me 
that  he  was  without  deep  feeling — our  German  Ge- 
miith.  .  .  .  Though  the  man  was  uncommonly 
friendly  and  affable  with  me,  it  yet  appeared  to 
me  at  times  as  though  Napoleon  wore  a  mask 
of  bronze." 

Napoleon's  most  important  interviews,  of  course,  ^f^rl^^e"' 
were  with  Alexander,  as  were  the  meetings  of  Tal-  ^^'^  Russia 
leyrand  and  De  Champigny  with  Count  Romanzov, 
the  Russian   Prime  Minister.     The  Czar,  in  return 
for  a  free  hand  in  Finland  and  in  the  Balkans,  ac- 
knowledged Napoleon's  brother  Joseph  as  King  of 
Spain,  and  agreed  to  enter  into  an  offensive  and  de- 
fensive alliance  with  Napoleon  in  case  France  were 
the  first  to  be  attacked.     Napoleon,  at  the  Czar's 
request,  remitted  20,000,000  francs  from  the  amount 
to  be  paid  to  him  by  the  King  of  Prussia.     Talley- 
rand,  at   one   of   his   frequent  audiences  with   the 
Czar,    first   broached   the   subject    of    the    possible  j^^^  j^j^^^^^ 
divorce   of   Josephine.     With    this   contingency   inbroacfhed 
view,    he    voiced    Napoleon's    suit    for    the    hand 
of   Alexander's    sister,    but   Alexander    begged   to 
be  excused.    Talleyrand  improved  the  occasion  by 
obtaining  the  hand  of  the  Princess  for  his  nephew, 
Egmont  de  Perigord. 

Before  leaving  Erfurt,  the  two  emperors  issued 
a  joint  letter  to  the  King  of  England.  It  opened 
thus:  "Brought  together  at  Erfurt,  our  first  thought 
is  to  yield  to  the  wish  and  the  wants  of  every  people, 
and  to  seek  a  speedy  pacification  with  your  Majesty, 
the  most  efficacious  remedy  for  the  miseries  which 
oppress  all  nations.  .  .     The  cause  is  to  be  found  in 


274  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Oct.  18O8 

the  state  of  agitation  and  misery  in  which  the  stag- 
nation of  maritime  commerce  has  placed  the  great- 
overtures    est  nations.     We  unite  in  entreating  your  Majesty 

to  England  °    "^  J        ./ 

to  listen  to  the  voice  of  humanity  silencing  that  of 
passions."  The  letter  concluded  in  the  same  strain. 
England's  answer  to  the  joint  proposals  was  sub- 
mitted by  Canning  to  the  Eussian  Ambassador  in 
Paris.  The  British  official  note  began  in  this  wise: 
"The  King  has  uniformly  declared  his  readiness  and 
desire  to  enter  into  negotiations  for  a  general  peace 
on  terms  consistent  with  the  honor  of  his  Majesty's 
crown,  with  fidelity  to  his  engagements,  and  with 
the  permanent  repose  and  security  of  Europe.  His 
Majesty  repeats  that  declaration.  ...  If  the  cause 
of  much  misery  is  to  be  found  in  the  stagnation  of 
commercial  intercourse,  although  his  Majesty  cannot 
be  expected  to  hear  with  unqualified  regret  that  the 
Cannings  svstem  dcviscd  for  the  destruction  of  the  commerce 

reply  •' 

of  his  subjects  has  recoiled  upon  its  authors  or  its 
instruments — yet  it  is  neither  in  the  disposition  of 
his  Majesty  nor  in  the  character  of  the  people  over 
whom  he  reigns  to  rejoice  in  the  privations  and  un- 
happiness  even  of  the  nations  which  are  combined 
against  him. 

"In  the  progress  of  a  war,  begun  for  self-defence, 
new  obligations  have  been  imposed  upon  England 
in  behalf  of  powers  whom  the  aggressions  of  a  com- 
mon enemy  have  compelled  to  make  common  cause 
with  his  Majesty,  or  who  have  solicited  his  Maj- 
esty's assistance  and  support  in  the  vindication  of 
their  national  independence.  .  .  .  The  interests  of 
the  Crown  of  Portugal  and  of  his  Sicilian  Majesty 


1808  Autumn  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  276 

are  confided  to  his  Majesty's  assistance.  With  the 
King  of  Sweden  his  Majesty  is  connected  by  ties 
of  the  closest  alliance.  With  Spain  his  Majesty, 
though  not  bound  by  any  formal  instrument,  in  thCg  ^^j^^ 
face  of  all  the  world  has  contracted  engagements  questton 
no  less  binding  than  the  most  solemn  treaties.  His 
Majesty  therefore  assumes  that  in  overtures  for  gen- 
eral peace  Spain  is  understood  to  be  a  party  to  any 
negotiations  in  which  England  is  invited  to  en- 
gage." 

The  upshot  of  the  new  peace  overtures  was  that 
France  and  Russia  declined  to  admit  the  Spanish  "in- 
surgents" to  any  part  in  the  negotiations.  George 
III.  of  England  issued  a  formal  proclamation  an- 
nouncing the  continuance  of  the  war:  "We  deeply 
lament  an  issue  by  which  the  sufferings  of  Europe 
are  aggravated  and  prolonged.  But  neither  the 
honor  of  the  crown  nor  the  generosity  of  the  Brit- 
ish nation  would  sanction  the  abandonment  of  a^  ,g^jjjj 
brave  and  loyal  people,  who  are  fighting  for  aip^^°<^'*fl"° 
that  is  dear  to  man;  and  whose  exertions  in  a  cause 
so  unquestionably  just  we  have  solemnly  pledged 
ourselves  to  sustain." 

England's  interference  in  the  affairs  of  the  Penin- 
sula was  at  first  resented  by  Portuguese  and  Span- 
iards alike.  W  hen  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  brought 
the  first  British  expedition  to  Spain  his  services 
were  declined  in  one  port  after  another,  until  he 
betook  himself  to  Portugal.  After  the  Convention 
of  Cintra  the  Portuguese  junta  recorded  an  emphatic 
protest  against  the  manner  of  its  conclusion.  It  ap- 
peared for  a  while  as  if  fears  of  too  permanent  a 


276  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Autumn  1806 

British  lodgment  were  almost  as  strong  as  hatred  of 
the  French.  A  late  instance  of  this  occurred  when 
Colonel  Doyle  organized  the  Spanish  prisoners  at 
i:*ortsmouth  and  sailed  with  them  for  Corafia.  The 
prisoners,  who  had  been  armed  and  clothed  by  Eng- 
land, mutinied  and  carried  the  transport  to  different 
ports  of  Spain,  whence  they  went  to  their  homes. 
After  Joseph's  retreat  from  Madrid,  the  insurrec- 

Peninsular     .,._,.  i  •  n  i  i 

campaign  tiou  ot  Spain  may  be  said  to  have  ceased  as  a  spon- 
taneous  popular  movement.  Thenceforward  it  be- 
came a  war  for  the  military  control  of  the  Peninsula, 
conducted  between  France  and  various  organized 
bodies  of  men,  now  Spaniards,  now  Portuguese,  now 
Englishmen.  The  most  picturesque  accounts  of 
this  warfare  may  be  found  in  such  books  as  Galdos' 
"Episodios  Nacionales, "   Blackmore's  "Alice  Loi-- 

ish^var*^n  raiue,"  or  Levcr's  "Charles  O'Malley."     When  the 

literature  •  r    z-^- 

Convention  of  Cintra  opened  a  way  for  operations 
in  Spain,  Sir  Hugh  Dalrymple  sent  Lord  William 
Bentinck  to  Spain  to  arrange  a  plan  of  co-operation 
with  the  Spanish  generals.  Associated  with  him 
were  a  number  of  British  military  agents  whose 
divergent  plans  added  greatly  to  the  confusion  al- 
ready existing  among  the  Spanish  leaders  of  the 
war. 
Councilor      A  council  of  most  of  the  generals  commanding 

generals 

at  Madrid  armics  was  held  at  Madrid  in  the  autumn.  Castaiios, 
Llama,  Cuesta,  Infantado  and  others  came.  Blake 
gave  his  proxy  to  Infantado,  while  Palafox  was  rep- 
resented by  a  member  of  his  staff.  They  could  not 
agree  upon  a  general-in-chief,  but  decided  to  unite 
their   forces   in   the   so-called   army  of   the  centre. 


9908  Autumn  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  277 

Even  this  movement  was  carried  oat  but  partially. 
Owing  to  the  factional  intrigues  and  corruption  ex- 
isting among  the  Spanish  juntas,  Castanos  declared 

Dissension 

he  would  no  longer  serve  under  them.  Cuesta  was  "^^ J'r^'J^^'^ 
ready  to  put  the  juntas  down  by  force  of  arms,  and 
Palafox  held  himself  quite  aloof  as  a  successful 
Captain-general.  In  the  end  a  central  government 
was  vested  in  the  Assembly,  and  by  the  advice  of 
Lord  Bentinck  and  Mr.  Stuart,  who  were  authorized 
to  supply  the  government  with  British  funds,  Cas- 
tanos was  to  be  appointed  generalissimo.  His  ap- 
pointment, however,  was  deferred  on  the  character- 
istic ground  that  when  the  enemy  was  driven  over 
the  frontier  he  might  then  have  leisure  to  assume 
command.  Yet  the  condition  of  the  Spanish  sol- 
diers, ill  fed,  poorly  armed  and  half  naked,  was 
declared  by  Mr.  Stuart  to  be  "neither  calculated 
to  inspire  courage  nor  to  increase  enthusiasm," 

Napoleon,  during  the  interim,  had  not  been  idle.  p,.ench 

While  he  was  conversing  with  poets  and  princes  at  concen- 
trating 
Erfurt,   and  dangling  the  olive  branch  before  the 

eyes    of    Englishmen,    his    armies    were    marchmg 

southward   from   the   banks   of    the   Vistula,   Elbe, 

Danube  and  Ehine— northward  from  Italy  and  Dal- 

matia  and  from  all  points  of  France.     Denmark  was 

evacuated  and  100,000  soldiers  of  the  Empire  were 

withdrawn  from  the  Prussian  States.     The  French 

garrisons  left  in  Germany  were  concentrated  on  the 

side  of   Austria.      The   army  in   Italy  was  placed 

under  Prince  Eugene  de  Beauharnais  and  Massena. 

Marat  in  Kaples  was  directed  to  raise  a  Neapolitan 

army    wherewith    to    threaten    Sicily.      In    France 


278  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Not.  1808 

80,000  new  recruits,  called  to  arms  before  their 
time,  were  sent  to  support  the  veterans  in  Spain, 
while  80,000  more  beardless  youths  were  called  to 
the  colors  as  reserves.  The  march  of  the  multi- 
Napoieon    tude  was  incessant.     As  the  soldiers  poured  through 

threatens 

Enfc'iaua  Paris,  Napoleon  addressed  them:  "Soldiers,  I  have 
need  of  you.  This  day,  without  a  moment  of  re- 
pose, I  command  you  to  traverse  France.  The 
hideous  presence  of  the  Leopard  contaminates  the 
peninsula  of  Spain  and  Portugal.  In  terror  he  must 
fly  before  you.  Let  us  bear  our  triumphant  eagles 
to  the  Pillars  of  Hercules.  There  we  have  injuries 
to  avenge." 

At  the  opening  of  the  Corps  Legislatif,  October 
20,  the  Emperor  declared:  "In  a  few  days  I  go  to 
put  myself  at  the  head  of  my  armies,  and  with  the 
aid  of  God  to  crown  the  King  of  Spain  in  Madrid 
— to  plant  my  eagles  on  the  towers  of  Lisbon."  On 
the  same  day  Sir  John  Moore  left  Lisbon  with  his 
British  force  to  march  for  Madrid. 
e)5f|^ror  Napoleon  arrived  in  Bayonne  on  November  3,  and 
command  crossed  the  Pyrenees  at  once  at  the  head  of  12,000 
troops.  Within  two  days  he  joined  his  brother 
Joseph  at  Vittoria.  By  this  time  the  French  troops, 
immediately  available,  numbered  more  than  90,000. 
They  were  distributed  at  various  points  under  Mar- 
shals Money,  Ney,  Bessi^res,  and  Generals  Saligny, 
Doraienne,  Menthion,  La  Grange  and  Dunat.  The 
Spaniards  numbered  76,000.  Dissatisfied  with  his 
brother  Joseph's  dispositions,  Napoleon  at  once 
took  command.  While  Sir  John  Moore,  with  his 
British   army,  was  floundering  along  the  wretched 


iSOSNov.  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  279 

roads  of  Portugal  and  northern  Spain,  Napoleon 
was  conducting  his  military  movements  with  accus- 
tomed precision  and  despatch. 

The  Spanish  forces  had  at  last  been  united  under 
Castanos.  They  crossed  the  Ebro  at  three  points, 
and  took  possession  of  Lerin,  Viana,  Capporoso 
and  other  French  posts  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Ebro.  The  French  did  not  oppose  Castafios'  ad- 
vance toward  Pampeluna  any  further  than  was 
necessary  to  mask  their  own  operations.  Marshal 
Money  decoyed  Castanos  well  beyond  the  banks  of  oastano* 
the  Allagon  and  Ebro.  Then,  suddenly,  Marshal  aiied 
Ney,  dashing  across  the  river  in  three  separate  col- 
umns, took  the  Spanish  posts  of  Lagrona  and  Col- 
chora.  He  threw  the  whole  army  into  confusion 
and  cut  off  communication  between  Castanos'  main 
army  and  Blake's  corps. 

In  a  series  of  actions  during  the  first  week  of 
November,  the  Spanish  right  wing  under  Greneral 
Blake  was  driven  south  from  Durango  to  Guenas, 
from  Guenas  to  Valmesda,  and  from  there  to  Espi- 
noza.  In  the  strong  position  there  the  Gallican 
army  made  a  stand  in  order  to  save  its  magazines  Battle o« 

EspinoM 

and  artillery,  but  was  routed  after  two  days  of 
fighting.  Most  of  the  guns  were  captured  by  the 
French.  General  Blake,  with  the  remains  of  his 
broken  army,  retreated  to  the  mountains  of  Astu- 
rias.  Marshal  Soult  occupied  Santander  on  Novem- 
ber 16.  The  Bishop  of  St.  Anderos  took  refuge 
in  an  English  frigate.  Napoleon  made  his  head- 
quarters at  Burgos.  This  town  was  sacked  under 
his  eyes.     An  eye-witness  has  told  how  he  saw  a 


280 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


Nov.  1808 


Battle  of 
Burg-OS 


Battle  of 
Tudela 


bivouac  fire  under  Napoleon's  windows  fed  all 
night  with  musical  instruments. 

The  Estramaduran  army,  under  Count  Belvidere, 
was  lured  to  a  weak  position  near  Burgos,  where 
the  French  fell  upon  them  in  overwhelmmg  num- 
bers. After  an  all-day  fight,  this  whole  army  was 
all  but  annihilated.  The  Spanish  commander  fled 
to  Aranda.  The  north  of  Spain  was  thus  laid  pros- 
trate. All  the  rear  communications  of  the  French 
army  were  safeguarded  to  Napoleon's  generals. 
Having  disposed  of  these  two  armies,  the  French 
combined  their  forces  against  a  central  army  under 
Castanos.  The  Spanish  vanguards  were  drawn  on 
to  Tudela,  and  there,  on  November  23,  the  main 
army  stood  battle.  The  outcome  fixed  the  fate  of 
the  whole  campaign. 

A  concise  description  of  the  whole  affair  was 
given  in  the  eleventh  bulletin  of  the  grand  army  of 
the  empire  in  Spain:  "On  November  23,  at  break 
of  day,  the  general  of  division,  Lefebvre,  at  the 
head  of  the  cavalry,  and  supported  by  the  division 
of  General  Morlat,  forming  the  advance  guard,  met 
with  the  enemy.  His  army  was  found  to  be  in 
seven  divisions  consisting  of  45,000  men  under 
arms,  with  its  right  before  Tudela,  and  its  left 
spread  over  a  league  and  a  half — a  disposition  alto- 
gether faulty.  Forty  pieces  of  artillery  covered  the 
enemy's  Ime.  The  Duke  of  Montebello  (Marshal 
Lannes)  caused  the  centre  to  be  pierced  by  the 
division  of  General  Matthews.  The  general  of  divi- 
sion, Lefebvre,  with  bis  cavalry,  immediately  passed 
on  the  trot  through  this  opening,  and,  by  a  quarter 


1808  Not.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

wheel  to  the  left,  enveloped  the  enemy.  The  mo- 
ment when  half  the  enemy's  line  found  itself  thus 
turned  and  defeated  was  that  in  which  General 
Lagrange  attacked  the  village  of  Cascante  and  over-  fe^rs?on°of' 
threw  Castanos'  line.  They  abandoned  the  field  ^'^'^''"^ 
of  battle,  leaving  behind  their  artillery  and  a  great 
number  of  prisoners.  The  cavalry  pursued  the  re- 
mains of  the  enemy's  army  to  Mallen,  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Saragossa,  and  to  Terragona,  in  the  direction 
of  Agreda.  Seven  standards,  thirty  guns,  twelve 
colonels,  three  hundred  officers,  and  five  thousand 
troops  of  the  line  were  taken.  No  quarter  was 
given  to  any  of  the  peasants  found  in  arms.  Four 
thousand  Spaniards  were  left  dead  or  plunged 
into  the  Ebro,  Victory  was  thus  struck  home  as 
with  a  thunderbolt  and  the  league  of  our  enemies 
is  dispersed." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Tudela  fell  short  of  Napo- 
leon's expectations,  for,  thanks  to  the  carelessness 
or  stubbornness  of  Ney,  who  rejected  Jomini's  sug- 
gestions to  advance  at  once  upon  Calatyud,  Cas- 
tanos was  able  to  rally  20,000  of  his  men  at  that 
place.     By  the  battle  of  Tudela  the  road  was  laid  French 

advanceon 

open  to  Madrid.  On  November  29,  the  French  ad-  ^^^'^"'^ 
vance  guard  reached  the  foot  of  the  Somosierra. 
In  the  strong  pass  of  El  Puerto,  11,000  Spaniards, 
under  Don  Benito  San  Juan,  were  judiciously 
posted.  A  battery  of  sixteen  guns  planted  in  the 
neck  of  the  pass  swept  the  steep  road.  The  Span 
Ish  infantry  lay  in  the  mountain  ridges,  one  line 
above  the  other,  with  intrenchments  at  all  open 
parts.     A  French  detachment,   sent  to   attack   the 


282  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  Nov.  i808 

advance  post  of  Sepulveda,  was  beaten  back  with 
loss.  Yet  the  Spaniards  retired.  At  daybreak  the 
French  swarmed  over  the  mountain-side  in  skirmish 
order.  Their  fire  was  well  returned,  and  the  central 
column  waited  at  the  foot  of  the  pass,  unwilling  to 
expose  itself  to  the  frowning  batteries  mounted  on 
the  crest.  At  this  moment  Napoleon  rode  into  the 
mouth  of  the  pass,  through  the  halting  ranks  of  his 
infantry.  The  blue  smoke  of  musketry  hung  over 
the  road.  In  sudden  inspiration  he  ordered  the 
ifpuerto  Polish  Lancers  of  his  guard  to  charge  up  the  moun- 
tain-side and  take  the  Spanish  guns.  Three  squad- 
rons dashed  up  the  steep  road.  As  the  mass  of 
crimson-clad  wild  horsemen  swept  past  the  Spanish 
sharpshooters  on  both  sides,  the  Spaniards  dis- 
charged their  muskets  and  ran  toward  the  summit 
of  the  pass.  The  first  platoon  of  the  Lancers  went 
down,  but  the  others  galloped  over  them,  led  by 
Kraszynski  and  Montbrun.  The  foremost  ranks 
of  the  Poles  were  mowed  down  by  grapesliot,  but 
before  the  gunners  could  reload,  the  Lancers  were 
upon  them.  Leaping  their  horses  over  the  intrench- 
ments,  they  took  the  battery.  The  Spanish  infantry, 
drawn  up  on  both  sides,  took  to  their  heels.  Phi- 
lippe de  S^gur,  a  favorite  of  the  imperial  court,  was 
wounded  during  the  short  fight. 

This  wild  charge,  rash  and  almost  hopeless  from 
a  military  point  of  view,  is  one  of  the  most  glorious 
exploits  of  French  and  Polish  annals.  It  could 
have  been  stopped  by  two  good  companies  of  in- 
fantry. As  it  was,  an  almost  impregnable  position, 
defended  by  12,000  men,  was  abandoned  to  a  fev<» 


IbOb  Dec. 


NINETEENTH    CENTURY  288 


liundred  horsemen.  Madrid  was  now  uncovered. 
On  the  news  of  Napoleon's  passage  of  the  Somo- 
siirra,  the  central  junta  left  Aranjuez  and  com- 
mitted the  defence  of  the  capital  to  the  people. 
Barricades  were  erected  and  volunteers  enrolled  in 
Madrid.  But  without  any  leadership  but  that  of 
Tommaso  Di  Morla,  the  former  governor  of  Cadiz  The  capital 

'  o  1  unprepared 

everything  went  topsy-turvy.  Sand  having  been 
found  in  a  number  of  cartridges  and  in  a  powder 
magazine,  the  mob  lynched  the  Municipal  Admin- 
istrator, Marquis  de  Perales.  On  December  2,  the 
French  army  appeared  in  force  before  the  gates. 
Napoleon  called  for  a  surrender.  His  summons  was 
ignored.  The  next  day  French  batteries  played  on 
the  Baen  Eetiro,  commanding  the  town,  while  as- 
saults were  made  on  the  gates  of  Alcala,  Reccollets, 
Atocha  and  Fuen  Caril.  A  breach  having  been 
opened,  the  French  division  of  Villate  stormed  the 
Retiro.  The  Madrilenos  fell  back  behind  their 
barricades.  Again  Napoleon  called  for  a  surren- 
der. Morla,  with  Yriarte,  replied  by  asking  for 
an  armistice.  The  next  day  Madrid  capitulated. 
Napoleon  with  his  army  made  a  triumphal  entry  ^^,P°g^°° 
into  the  capital.  The  inhabitants  shut  themselves  *^^'^""* 
up  in  their  houses,  and  not  a  voice  was  raised  in 
welcome  of  the  French.  After  some  excesses  of 
the  mob  against  the  French  soldiers,  Napoleon  can- 
celled all  the  terms  of  his  capitulation.  He  notified 
the  paroled  Spanish  officers  that  they  were  prison- 
ers. Sentences  of  imprisonment  were  likewise  im- 
posed upon  the  Prince  of  Castelfranco,  the  Marquis 
de   Santa   Cruz,   Count   d'Altamira   and   the   Mar- 


284  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Dec.  la- 

quis  de  St.  Simon.  Other  decrees  abolished  feudal 
rights,  the  Inquisition,  internal  custom  regulations. 

French  ,  i-ii-iii  ••  •!,• 

reforms  in  and  one-third  or  all  the  convents  existing  in  Spam. 

Spain  _  ^  I 

Napoleon  issued  a  proclamation  announcing  that  if 
Spain  refused  recognition  to  King  Joseph  he  would 
himself  place  the  crown  on  his  head. 

"1  shall  know  how  to  make  myself  respected  by 
all  rebels,  for  God  has  given  me  strength  and  the 
will  to  surmount  all  obstacles.  From  that  day  will 
date  the  prosperity  of  Spain." 

Another  decree  was  in  regard  to  Prussia.     The 
evacuation  of  Berlin  by  the  French  troops  was  sanc- 
tioned, but  one  Stein,  the  fallen  Prime  Minister  of 
stein         Prussia,  was  declared  to  be  an  outlaw  and  enemy 

exiled  '  •' 

of  the  empire.     His  property  was  confiscated  and 
he  was  ordered  to  be  apprehended  at  sight.     Stein 
escaped  across  the  border  to  Bohemia.    As  a  crown- 
ing humiliation  to  the  King  of  Prussia,  he  was  com- 
pelled to  pursue  with  his  police,  as  a  criminal,  the 
wisest  counsellor  he  had  ever  had.     While  at  Ma- 
drid, Napoleon  learned  of  the  recent  palace  revolu- 
Turkish      ^^^^  ^^  Constantinople.      The  Janizaries  had  risen 
revo?utioD  again  and  had  strangled  Mustapha,  the  Grand  Viz- 
ier.     Baraiktar  blew   himself  up  with   his  guards. 
During  the  latter  part  of  December  the  French 
won  several   handsome  victories.     At  Cardeda,  or 
Llenas,  near  Barcelona,  General  Saint  Cyr  attacked 
the  army  of  Catalonia.     The  French  troops,  though 
unprovided    with   artillery   or   ammunition,    routed 
French      the  Spaniards  with  the  bayonet.     Oq  December  21, 

victories  *•  "^  ' 

in  Spain     General  Saint  Cyr,  in  a  threefold  battle  at  Llobri- 
gat,  San  Felice,  and  Molino  del  Rey,  near  Barcelona, 


3808  Dec.  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  285 

inflicted  a  crushing  defeat  on  the  Spaniards  and 
took  all  their  artillery  and  ammunition.  Sir  John 
Moore,  marching  into  Spain,  learned  at  Salamanca 
of  the  disasters  that  had  overtaken  the  Spanish 
army.  His  own  artillery  and  cavalry  did  not  re- 
join him  until  December.     Moore  at  first  decided 

■'  Sir  John 

to  retreat  to  Portugal,  leaving  an  order  for  Sir  Moore's 
David  Baird  to  return  to  Coruna.  At  the  entreat-  ^""^^ 
ies  of  the  Spanish  general,  and  of  Frere,  the  British 
envoy  to  the  central  junta,  Moore  agreed  to  march 
to  Valladolid,  thereby  sacrificing  his  communica- 
\ions  with  Portugal.  Henceforth  his  base  must  be 
Coruna.  On  December  20,  he  effected  a  junction 
with  Baird  at  Majojorga,  which  brought  his  forces 
up  to  25,000  men.     Marshal  Souit  fell  back  before  ret^o-lade 

1  1  1    o    1  movement 

them  beyond  Sahagun. 

Napoleon  divined  the  significance  of  Moore's 
movement.  "Everything  leads  me  to  believe,"  he 
wrote  to  Joseph,  as  he  left  Madrid,  "that  they  are 
evacuating  Portugal,  and  directing  their  line  of 
operation  on  Coruna.  In  making  this  retrograde 
movement,  they  may  hope  to  inflict  a  check  on 
Marshal  Soult's  corps."  Late  in  December  he 
wrote  to  Josephine:  "I  am  starting  this  moment. 
I  am  going  to  outmanoeuvre  the  English.  They 
appear  to  have  their  reinforcements  and  now  wish 
to  play  the  swaggerers."     That  evening  he  crossed „     , 

^      ''  "O  "  Napoleon 

the  Guadarrama  in  a  fearful  storm.     The  snow  was ^'^^^f^®^^''^® 
so  thick  that  all  had  to  dismount  and  plod  on  foot,  ^^^^ 
with  Napoleon  leading  the  way.    On  Christmas  Day 
the   Emperor   was   near  Valladolid,  in   hourly  ex- 
pectation of  catching  the  English  between  his  own 


286 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


Dec.  1808 


Medina  del 
Rio  Seco 


forces  and  those  of  Soult,  Sir  John  Moore,  who 
was  about  to  engage  Soult,  learned  through  the  Mar- 
quis of  Romana  of  Napoleon's  rapid  advance  and 
prudently  fell  back.  The  road  to  Corufla  was  en- 
cumbered by  the  Spanish  transports,  and  the  Brit- 
ish had  to  go  by  the  way  of  Benevento  toward 
Astorga,  blowing  up  the  bridge  over  the  Ezla. 
Fishtof  Greneral  Lefebvre,  with  an  advance  guard  of  cav- 
alry at  Medina  del  R-io  Seco,  was  so  eager  to  catch 
up  that  he  swam  his  squadron  across  the  river. 
There  they  were  met  by  Lord  Paget's  rearguard 
of  cavalry  and  were  put  to  the  sword.  Lefebvre 
himself  was  made  a  prisoner  while  struggling  in 
the  water.  Napoleon  pursued  the  British  until  the 
end  of  the  year,  amid  -wretched  weather  and  over 
muddy  roads.  When  he  reached  Astorga,  he  saw 
that  he  was  no  longer  able  to  prevent  Moore  from 
embarking  at  Coruna.  Abruptly  he  turned  the 
command  over  to  Soult  and  Ney,  and  returned 
to  Valladolid.  In  one  of  his  letters  of  that  period, 
Napoleon  stated  that  he  did  so  because  further  pur- 
suit would  have  carried  him  twenty  days'  distance 
from  Paris. 

In  Paris,  the  intrigues  of  Fouchd  and  Talleyrand 
made  him  uneasy,  and  the  continued  military  prepa- 
rations of  Austria  made  war  with  Germany  appear 
imminent.  The  finances  of  France  were  once  more 
in  such  a  shape  that  only  a  successful  war  could 
help  them. 

The  effects  of  the  tremendous  struggle  between 
Great  Britain  and  Napoleon  were  felt  even  at 
the  other  end  of  the  world,  in  China.     Fearful  of 


Napoleon 
gives  up 
pursuit 


French 

home 

affairs 


1608  Dec.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  287 

a  Frencli  attack  on  the  Portuguese  trading  sta- 
tion at  Macao,  a  squadron  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany landed  marines  at  Wampoa.  Thereupon,  the 
mandarin  Vu,  the  governor  of  Canton,  addressed  a 
"chop"  or  proclamation  to  Commodore  Craig  on  the 
"Elphinstone,"  It  read  in  this  wise:  "I,  the  Man- 
darin Vu,  by  favor  of  the  son  of  heaven,  Tsonto,  of 
the  province  of  Quangtong  and  Quangsi,  member 
of  the  tribunal  of  war  aod  of  the  Tsungli-yamen, 
warn  you,  that,  being  certain  that  your  bad  king- 
dom is  situated  in  the  islands  of  the  sea,  and  that 
you  originally  employed  yourselves  in  making  manifesto 
watches  to  enable  you  to  pay  your  taxes,  after- 
ward by  the  especial  and  profound  goodness  of 
our  great  Emperor,  who  was  desirous  of  benefit- 
ing you,  he  granted  you  permission  to  come  to 
this  empire  to  trade.  If  you  do  not  cease  your 
disturbances  our  innumerable  soldiers  shall  arrive, 
who  will  destroy  and  burn  you,  even  if  you  are 
as  hard  as  stone  or  jasper.  In  order  that  you  may 
heed  this  I  direct  this  chop  to  you  in  the  thirteenth 
year  of  the  Emperor  Kia  King,  on  the  seventeenth 
day  of  the  tenth  moon"  (December  3,  1808). 

The  British  reply  to  this  note  was  no  less  quaint: 
"May  it  please  your  excellency,  we  the  undersigned 
commanders  of  the  Honorable  East  India  Company  ^"^^^^'^ 
at  Wampoa,  for  ourselves,  our  officers  and  our  men, 
have  the  exalted  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt 
of  your  excellency's  most  gracious  letter  delivered  to 
us  by  the  two  mandarins  whom,  we  are  informed,  it 
was  your  descending  pleasure  to  send  for  that  pur- 
pose.    Our  object  in  visiting  this  country  is  purely 


288  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Dec.  1808 

commercial,  to  continue  in  the  same  manner  that 
friendly  and  useful  intercourse  which  has  existed 
for  many  years,  and  is  now  become  from  its  magni- 
tude of  the  very  first  importance  to  both  our  vast 
empires.  We  understand  that  our  admiral,  who  is 
an  officer  of  high  rank,  at  the  request  of  the  Portu- 
guese landed,  some  troops  at  Macao  to  help  them 
defend  it  against  the  French.  This  wicked  nation, 
ever  since  they  murdered  their  sovereign,  have 
waged  war  upon  all  nations  within  their  reach,  and 
Efforts  to    we  understand  are  now  marching  by  land  to  make 

iinplica.te  _ 

France  war  upon  the  Celestial  Jb^rapire,  as  the  British  navy 
prevents  them  by  sea.  We,  of  course,  wish  to  have 
no  concern  with  any  disturbance  in  the  Celestial 
Empire,  and  we  most  humbly  implore  your  excel- 
lency to  order  trade  to  be  reopened,  that  we  may 
thereby  find  employment  in  the  quiet  habits  of 
industry." 

This  reply  did  not  satisfy  the  ruler  of  China, 
and  trade  was  suspended  for  the  nonce.  Great 
Britain  had  too  much  at  stake  in  other  quarters 
of  the  world  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  China,  and  so 
British  traders  had  to  be  content  to  bide  their  time 
in  the  East. 


ifl09Jan.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  289 


1809 

N  the  first  of  January,  Sir  John  Moore's  rear- 
guard quit  Astorga.  On  the  same  day  Na- 
poleon confessed  himself  beaten  in  this 
final  order  to  Marshal  Soult,  transmitted  to  him 
through  Berthier:  "The  Emperor,  foreseeing  the  Napoleon's 
embarkation  of  the  British,   commands   that  whentionsm 

Spaia 

the  English  shall  have  embarked  you  shall  march 
on  Oporto,"  Next  day  Napoleon,  having  received 
new  despatches  from  Paris,  in  his  turn  left  Astorga 
and  hastened  back  to  Valladolid,  en  route  for  Paris. 
Marshal  Lannes,  who  had  just  caught  up  with  him, 
having  been  summoned  from  a  sick-bed,  was  placed 
in  charge  of  the  second  siege  of  Saragossa.  Imme- 
diately after  his  departure,  the  British  cavalry  beat 
off  their  pursuers  in  a  sharp  skirmish  at  Calcabeles.  French 

victory  at 

At  Prieros  a  Spanish  division  laid  down  their  arms.  Caicabeies 
By  January  6,  the  British  rearguard,  having  thrice 
checked  the  French  pursuit,  rejoined  the  main  body 
at  Lugo.  For  two  days  the  exhausted  British 
troops  lay  at  rest  there  in  battle  order.  They 
needed  a  rest  badly.  When  they  crossed  the 
snow-covered  mountain  ridge  between  Villafranca 
and  Lugo  their  provisions  had  failed  them.  Then 
the  men  had  to  live  by  pillage;  horses  were  slaugh- 
tered for  food,  and  stores  of  all  kinds  had  to  be 
XlXtli  Century— Vol.  1—13 


290  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  Jan.  i809 

thrown  away  by  the  exhausted  soldiers.  Thou- 
sands of  stragglers  were  left  to  freeze  to  death  or 
fall  a  prey  to  the  French.  By  the  time  Lugo  was 
British  I'eached  the  whole  army,  excepting  the  rearguard, 
Lugo**^  was  in  a  state  of  dissolution.  Marshal  Soult  neg- 
lected to  press  his  advantage  by  a  pitched  battle  at 
Lugo,  and  the  English  slipped  out  of  their  position 
during  the  night  of  the  second  day.  The  night 
march  from  Lugo  to  Batanzas  cost  the  British  in 
stragglers  more  than  double  the  number  of  men 
lost  in  all  preceding  operations.  The  troops  got 
to  Batanzas  on  the  10th  of  January.  By  a  forced 
march  next  day  they  reached  Cor  una.  In  nine 
the^coast  clays  of  marching  they  had  covered  150  miles. 
Napoleon,  during  the  early  part  of  his  pursuit, 
had  covered  164  miles  over  worse  roads  in  seven 
days. 

At  Coruiia  the  British  to  their  dismay  found  no 
sign  of  their  fleet.  Nothing  remained  for  Moore 
but  to  prepare  for  a  last  stand.  With  their  backs 
to  the  sea,  the  British  soldiers  were  lined  up  for 
battle.  Happily  for  them  the  French  were  slow  in 
coming  up.  At  last,  on  January  14,  the  British 
squadron  hove  in  sight  off  Coruna.  Then  Mar- 
shal Soult  woke  up  and  made  a  determined  effort 
to  prevent  the  British  from  embarking.  All  day 
long,  on  the  16th  of  January,  the  battle  raged,  but 

Battle  of 

Coruna  the  English  held  all  their  positions.  Their  two 
commanding  generals,  Moore  and  Baird,  were 
struck  down  in  battle.  Moore,  while  in  the 
midst  of  the  fight,  received  a  cannon  ball  in 
his   breast.     The   wound   was   so   gaping    that   the 


1809  Jan.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  291 

hilt  of  his  sword  got  entangled  in  it.  When  an 
officer  tried  to  remove  it  Moore  stopped  hira,  say- 
ing: "It  is  well  as  it  is.  I  would  rather  have  my 
sword  to  go  out  of  the  field  together  with  me."     Sir 

"^  °  Death  of 

John  Moore  died  in  the  knowledge  that  his  men  Moo^'re'^" 
were  saved.  With  his  eyes  on  the  transports,  he 
expired  in  the  arms  of  his  friend,  Colonel  Ander- 
son, murmuring,  "You  know  that  I  always  wished 
to  die  thus — I  hope  the  English  people  will  be 
content."  That  night  the  whole  British  army  em- 
barked to  the  last  man.  Next  morning  they  put 
to  sea. 

The  end  of  the  first  English  expedition  to  Spain 
was  followed  by  a  burst  of  feeling  in  England.  As 
it  happened,  a  terrible  storm  off  Coruna  scattered  end  of  the 

expedition 

the  transports.  Many  ships  were  wrecked,  and  the 
others  driving  up  the  Channel  were  glad  to  put  in 
wherever  they  could.  The  soldiers  were  thrown 
on  shore  from  Land's  End  to  Dover  in  a  pitiable 
state.  Their  tales  of  the  sufferings  they  had  under- 
gone were  harrowing.  A  Parliamentary  inquiry 
was  called  for,  and  severe  strictures  were  passed 
on  the  conduct  of  the  campaign.  Moore's  character 
was  vindicated  even  by  his  enemies.  His  immedi- 
ate foe.  Marshal  Soult,  said:  "Sir  John  Moore  took 
every  advantage  that  the  country  afforded  to  oppose  General 

1       •  •  TT       />     •    1       I    1       Moore 

an  active  and  vigorous  resistance.  He  finished  by  vindicated 
dying  in  a  combat  that  must  do  credit  to  his  mem- 
ory." Napoleon,  in  later  years,  both  at  Elba  and 
St.  Helena,  afiirmed  that  Moore's  talents  and  firm- 
ness alone  had  saved  the  English  army  from 
destruction. 


292  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Jan.  1809 

The  most  famous  tribute  to  the  memory  of  Sir 
John  Moore  was  Charles  Wolfe's  poem  on  his 
burial,  which  has  become  a  classic: 


Wolfe'b 
stanzas 


Not  a  drum-beat  was  heard  nor  a  funeral  note, 
As  his  corse  to  the  rampart  we  hurried; 

Not  a  soldier  discharged  his  farewell  shot 
O'er  the  grave  where  our  hero  lay  buried. 

We  buried  him  darkly  at  dead  of  night, 
The  sod  with  our  bayonets  turning, 

By  the  struggling  moonbeams'  misty  hght 
And  the  lantern  dimly  burning. 

No  useless  coffin  inclosed  his  breast, 

Nor  in  sheet,  nor  in  shroud  we  bound  him; 

But  he  lay  like  a  warrior  taking  his  rest 
"With  his  martial  cloak  around  him. 

Few  and  short  were  the  prayers  we  said, 
And  we  spoke  not  a  word  of  sorrow ; 

But  we  steadfastly  gazed  on  the  face  of  the  dead, 
And  we  bitterly  ''.;ought  of  the  morrow. 

We  thought,  when  we  hollowed  his  narrow  bed. 
And  smoothed  down  his  lonely  pillow, 

That  the  foe  and  the  stranger  would  tread  o'er 
his  head, 
And  we  far  away  on  the  billow. 

Lightly  they  talk  of  the  spirit  that's  gone, 
And  o'er  his  cold  ashes  upbraid  him — 

But  little  he  recks,  so  they  let  him  sleep  on. 
In  the  grave  where  a  Brilon  has  laid  him. 

But  half  of  our  heavy  task  was  done 

When  the  bugle  blew  for  retiring, 
And  we  know  by  the  distant  random  gun 

That  the  foe  was  sullenly  firing. 

Slowly  and  sadly  we  laid  him  down 

From  tlie  field  of  his  fame,  fresh  and  gory; 

We  carved  not  a  line,  we  raised  not  a  stone- 
But  wo  left  him  alone  in  his  glory. 


i 


1809  Jan.  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  293 

During  the  acrid  Parliamentary  discussions  that 
followed  the  unfortunate  campaign  in  Spain,  an 
opportunity  was  afforded  to  clear  the  reputation  of 
Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  for  the  part  he  bore  in  ratify- 
ing the  Convention  of  Cintra.  The  inquiry  into  the 
causes  of  this  sore  disappointment  resulted  in  an 
official  vindication  for  the  generals  concerned  in  it  British 

^  general 

with  this  qualification:  "Considering  the  extraor- ^^'^"®'"*^®^ 
dinary  circumstances  under  which  two  new  com- 
manding generals  arrived  and  joined  the  army  (the 
one  during  and  the  other  immediately  after  the  bat- 
tle of  Vilmeiro — and  these  successively  superseding 
both  each  other  and  the  original  commander  within 
a  space  of  twenty-four  hours),  it  is  perhaps  not  sur- 
prising that  the  army  was  not  carried  forward." 
Sir  Arthur,  who  strongly  condemned  the  inaction 
of  his  superior  officers  after  the  battle,  agreed  with 
them  that  when  the  enemy  had  once  been  permitted 
to  escape,  the  evacuation  of  Portugal  was  the  best 
result  the  English  could  obtain.  Accordingly  the 
King  of  England,  while  approving  the  verdict  of 
the  board  of  inquiry,  formally  announced  his  dis- 
approval of  the  convention  itself.  By  way  of  con- 
solation for  Sir  Arthur's  enforced  inactivity  during 
these  proceedings,  Parliament  gave  him  a  vote  of 

^  °    '  ^  Wellington 

thanks,  and  he  was  promptly  appointed  to  another  ^j,^|r*°^^j_ 
command    in    Spain.      The    wrath    of    the    people  ™^° 
turned  against  the  Duke  of  York,  the  commander- 
in-chief    of    the   British  army,  who  was   found   to 
have  carried  on  a  corrupt  traffic  in  military  com- 
missions through  the  medium  of  his  mistress,  one  York  dis- 
Mrs.  Clarke.     At  the  end  of  the  sensational  trial 


294 


A    HISTORY   OF    THE 


JaD.  1809 


Napoleon' 

parting 

measures 


A  flying 
trip  to 
France 


Prepara- 
tions for 
another 
war 


the  matter  was  so  plain  that   the   Duke  of   York 
had  to  resign. 

Across  the  Channel,  at  the  same  time,  equally 
high  functionaries  of  the  French  Empire  found  them- 
selves in  trouble.  Napoleon  had  left  Valladolid  on 
January  17,  without  waiting  to  learn  the  outcome 
of  Soult's  operations  against  the  English.  He  con- 
tented himself  with  leaving  instructions  to  reoccupy 
Portugal,  to  send  the  best  masterpieces  of  Spanish 
art  to  the  Louvre,  and  to  hang  a  score  or  so  of 
Spanish  malcontents  in  Madrid.  From  Valladolid 
he  sent  a  warlike  circular  note  to  the  princes  of 
the  Germanic  Federation,  bidding  them  beware  of 
Austria.  He  announced  to  them  that  he  was  ready 
to  move  into  the  valley  of  the  Inn  with  150,000  men 
without  withdrawing  a  single  soldier  from  Spain. 
From  Valladolid  to  Paris  Napoleon  travelled  at 
such  speed  that  all  his  suite  were  left  behind 
at  various  stages  of  the  journey.  In  the  first  five 
hours  he  rode  eighty-five  miles,  by  means  of  saddle 
horses  posted  along  the  route  in  relays  of  nine 
horses  for  every  ten  miles.  At  Bayonne  he  took 
a  coach  and  travelled  thence  to  Paris  by  equally 
rapid  relays  of  post  horses.  On  the  23d  of  Janu- 
ary he  arrived  in  Paris.  Marshal  Berthier  was 
despatched  at  once  to  Germany  to  assemble  the 
French  forces  of  the  Danube.  From  the  scenes 
that  followed  in  the  Tuileries  it  was  clear  that  the 
Emperor  had  returned  to  his  court  in  a  very  ill 
humor.  Acting  on  the  reports  of  his  spies,  who 
Informed  him  of  the  recent  reconciliation  of  Talley- 
rand and  Fouch(3,  and  of  their  alleged  plans  to  make 


1809  Jan.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  295 

Murat  Napoleon's  successor,  he  summoned  each  in 
turn  before  him.  Unable  to  prove  the  truth  of 
these  allegations  he  took  occasion  to  overwhelm 
Fouchd   with   public   censure   at  the   first   meetinsr  ^     ^ 

i  D  Fouche 

of  the  Imperial  Council.  Talleyrand  was  called  famnus!^' 
to  account  for  some  of  his  reported  comments  on  ^^  ^^ 
Napoleon's  dealings  with  the  Bourbons,  in  particu- 
lar those  with  the  princes  of  Spain  and  the  Duke  of 
Enghien.  The  Emperor  became  very  violent  dur- 
ing the  interview,  and  once  or  twice  threatened  to 
strike  Talleyrand  with  his  fist.  Talleyrand  received 
his  master's  reproaches  in  silence.  When  all  was 
ended  he  made  a  low  bow  and  retired.  Next  day 
he  attended  the  Sunday  levee  at  court  as  usual. 
Napoleon  pretended  not  to  see  him.  He  deprived 
TuUeyrand  of  his  dignities  as  Grand  Chamberlain 
at  the  imperial  court.  One  of  Talleyrand's  royal- 
ist friends,  Madame  de  Chevreuse,  for  her  refusal 
to  act  as  lady-in-waiting  to  the  deposed  Queen  of 
Spain,  was  banished  from  Paris.  Murat,  at  Naples, 
was  informed  that  his  presumption  in  bestowing 
Sicilian  orders  on  some  of  his  friends  was  "su- 
premely ridiculous."     Louis  of  Holland  was  sharply  Bmaparte 

.  .  '    ropri- 

reprimanded  for  his  benign  toleration  of  the  smug- manded 
gling  trade  that  flourished  between  England  and 
Holland.  The  social  atmosphere  of  Josephine's 
imperial  court,  never  too  free  from  apprehension, 
was  full  of  gloomy  forebodings.  Several  former  fa- 
vorites were  exiled  from  court.  Josephine's  friend, 
the  Duchess  of  Gesvres,  an  old  lady  of  eighty,  was 
to  be  punished  similarly,  but  Josephine  succeeded 
in  saving  her  from  the  imperial  wrath.     Since  the 


296  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  Jan.  180»       I 

day  that  Talleyrand  had  broached  the  subject  of  a      | 
possible  divorce  for  Napoleon  at  Erfurt,  the  posi-       ' 
tion   of   Josephine   had   been   precarious.      At  the 
Josephine  Elys^cs,  ths  HBW  palace,  which  the  Emperor  had 
BHghfe^"^  taken  over  from  Murat,  Napoleon  did  not  hesitate 
to  vaunt  his  Jatest  love  affairs  before  Josephine. 

While  at  the  Elys^es  the  Emperor  was  informed 

of  the  progress  of  the  second  siege  of  Saragossa. 

This  city,  though  still   unfortified,  put  up  a  more 

Second       gallant  defence  even  than  during  its  first  siege.     At 

siege  of         '^  o  o 

Saragossa  this  period  the  city  had  a  population  of  barely 
50,000,  together  with  the  remnants  of  the  Spanish 
army  that  had  been  scattered  at  Dudela.  As  before,  j 
Palafox  was  in  command.  He  had  taken  an  oath 
to  bury  himself  beneath  the  ruins  of  the  city  rather 
than  surrender  to  the  French.  Gibbets  were  raised 
in  the  market-place  for  those  who  should  dare  to 
speak  of  capitulation.  The  siege  was  begun  on 
December  20,  1808,  when  Mortier's  and  Money's 
divisions  arrived  before  Saragossa.  Next  day  the 
French  assaulted  the  place.  Monte  Torrero  was 
stormed  and  the  city  was  entered  through  the  canal 
sluices.  The  French  were  beaten  off  with  a  loss  of 
400  men.  Then  engineering  tactics  came  into  play 
under  the  direction  of  Chief  Engineer  Lacoste.  By 
the  end  of  December  the  French  were  ready  for  a 
general  assault  from  their  earthworks,  which  now 
completely  encircled  the  city.  A  summons  to  sur- 
render was  sent,  in  which  the  recent  example  of 
Madrid  was  cited.  Palafox  replied:  "If  Madrid 
has  surrendered,  Madrid  has  been  sold.  Saragossa 
shall  neither  be  sold  nor  surrendered."    The  French 


IBOgJan.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  297 

attacked  at  three  points  at  once,  but  were  beaten 
off  again  with  heavy  losses  on  both  sides.  Money's 
place   was   now  taken  by  Junot.     An  epidemic  of 

^  .  ^  Cholera 

cholera,  together  with  famine,  rendered  the  suffer- a"<^  fa™'"» 
ings  of  those  within  almost  intolerable.  Yet  they 
harassed  the  French  by  sallies  almost  every  day. 
On  January  10,  the  city  was  bombarded  by  thirty- 
two  siege  guns,  and  the  convent  of  St.  Joseph  wao 
battered  to  pieces.  Next  day  the  French  stormed 
the  convent,  and  a  few  days  after  succeeded  in  seiz- 
ing all  the  bridge  works  in  front  of  Santa  Engracia. 
Strong  batteries  of  fifty  guns,  reaching  the  bridge 
over  the  Ebro,  cut  off  the  city  from  all  intercourse 
with  the  suburbs.  Withal,  the  condition  of  thccut^^"'^* 
French  army  was  unenviable,  for  its  ranks,  too, 
were  wasted  by  famine  and  fever.  From  the  rear, 
the  French  were  worried  by  various  bodies  of  Span- 
ish insurgents  eager  to  relieve  Saragossa.  On  Jan- 
uary 22,  Marshal  Lannes  arrived  and  the  siege  was 
pressed  with  more  vigor.  The  Spaniards,  too,  be- 
came  more    aggressive    as    their   situation    became 

1  T  •        TIT      •  /~i    1-     1     Desperate 

more   desperate.       in   one   sortie   Mariano   (jalindoresist- 

^  auce  of 

succeeded  in  penetrating  through  the  French  Hues  ^p^"'^'^'^ 
and  in  spiking  a  mortar  battery  behind  the  second  • 
parallel  trench.  In  the  hand-to-hand  fight  he  was 
cut  down  with  all  his  followers.  January  29,  the 
French  attacked  at  four  points,  and  three  chosen 
columns  leaped  upon  the  ruined  walls  of  Saragossa. 
They  did  not  get  further  than  the  first  large  crosp- 
street.  Some  of  the  stone  houses  along  this  street 
nad  to  be  stormed  no  less  than  three  times  by  suc- 
cessive bodies  of  Frenchmen.     Finally  the  French 


Death  of 
Lacoste 


298  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Feb.  i609 

lodged  themselves  within  the  city  walls,  and  street 
fighting  became  general.  During  the  first  days  on- 
slaught 600  Frenchmen  and  nearly  that  number  of 
Spaniards  were  killed.  Chief  Engineer  Lacoste  was 
killed  during  the  fight,  and  so  was  San  Grenio,  one 
of  the  foremost  Spanish  colonels.  From  then  on, 
fighting  grew  so  fierce  that  every  house  had  to  be 
assaulted  in  turn,  while  mines  were  laid  under  it 
as  if  it  were  a  fort.  General  Brandt  in  his  memoirs 
has  given  a  glimpse  of  the  horror  of  those  days: 

Brandt's  '*The  morc  we  advanced  the  more  desperate  grew 
ebcnp  1  "i^^g-j,  resistance.  One  by  one  we  had  to  take  each 
house,  transformed  into  a  redoubt.  Death  lurked  for 
us  everywhere,  from  the  cellar,  between  the  doors 
and  from  behind  shutters.  If  you  entered  a  house, 
you  had  to  inspect  and  search  it  from  cellar  to  attic. 
Often,  as  you  entered  a  room,  you  would  be  shot  at 
from  the  room  above  through  holes  drilled  in  the 
flooring.  The  stairways,  galleries  and  queer  turns 
of  those  old  Spanish  houses  were  admirably  adapted 
for  such  warfare."  On  the  last  day  of  January  the 
convents  of  Santa  Monica  and  Santa  Engracia  were 
blown  up  by  the  French  sappers,  but  the  Spaniards 
fought  on  in  their  ruins.  Whenever  the  French 
succeeded  in  taking  a  house,  the  Spaniards,  having 
previously  saturated  it  with  oil,  would  set  it  on  fire. 
In  this  manner  the  fight  was  carried  on  from  street 
to  street  until  February  7,  when  the  French  got  a 
firm  lodging  all  along  the  Coaso.     Under  that  great 

The^ocsso  thoroughfare  they  dug  six  galleries  and  made  mines 
to  be  exploded  simultaneously  with  those  under  the 
university.     By  this  time  the  siege  had  lasted  fifty 


of  Sara- 
g'ossa 
blown  up 


1809  Feb.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  299 

days.  Half  of  the  fighters  on  both  sides  had  suc- 
cumbed to  sword  and  fire,  or  to  sickness  from  pesti- 
lence and  hunger.  Those  that  were  left  carried  on 
the  struggle  underground  among  the  heaps  of  the 
dead  and  dying.  On  February  18,  having  com- 
pleted all  preparations,  Lannes  ordered  a  general 
assault.  Three  thousand  pounds  of  powder  were 
sprung  under  the  University  of  Saragossa,  and  the  u^j^g^gi^ 
walls  of  the  ancient  edifice  fell  in  a  heap.  Even  in^ofsa*^ 
the  ruins  the  French  were  beaten  off,  but  finally  got 
a  foothold.  A  score  of  similar  explosions  all  around 
the  city  made  the  French  masters  of  the  remaining 
fortifications  between  the  Convent  of  St.  Augustine 
and  the  Ebro.  The  concentrated  fire  of  fifty  cannon 
opened  a  breach  in  the  Convent  of  St.  Lazarus,  and 
Baron  Versarge  with  nearly  a  thousand  of  his  fol- 
lowers were  put  to  the  sword.  Three  hundred  beat 
their  way  into  the  inner  city  across  a  burning  Pf^"®'^'"'^'® 
bridge.  This  success  for  the  French  was  followed  °"^^ 
on  the  19th  by  another  attack  on  the  right  bank 
of  the  Ebro,  where  a  whole  row  of  buildings  was 
blown  up  by  a  series  of  mines.  At  last  Palafox, 
who  lay  sick  in  his  bomb-proof,  sued  for  terms. 
Most  of  the  other  leaders  of  the  siege  lay  dead, 
among  them  the  famous  Tios  Jorge  and  Marino,  ^e' 
the  curate  of  St.  Giles  and  the  indomitable  lemon- 
ade seller  of  the  Corso.  The  simultaneous  explo- 
sion of  45,000  pounds  of  gunpowder  together  with 
the  bombardment  of  16,000  bombshells  had  shaken 
the  city  to  its  foundations.  Thousands  of  dead 
bodies  lay  about  the  streets  and  in  the  vaults. 
Throughout  the  last  month  the  daily  deaths  among 


French 

jenetral 
nto  inner 


Heroes  of 

siege 


800  A   HISTORY  OF   THE  Feb.  1809 

the  besieged  had  been  five  hundred,  and  the  living 
were  too  weak  to  bury  the  dead.  Yet  the  people 
of  Saragossa  wanted  to  kill  Palafox  when  they 
learned  of  his  offer  to  surrender.  Only  by  aban- 
doning the  citadel  to  the  French  could  the  Spanish 
generals  make  the  populace  come  to  terms.  Ac- 
cording to  French  writers,  Saragossa  surrendered 
at  discretion;  but,  judging  from  Brandt's  memoirs 
Surrender  and    the    Spanish    records,    the    garrison   was    per- 

ofSara-  or 

gossa  mitted  to  march  out  with  all  the  honors  of  war, 
while  the  peasants  were  returned  to  their  homes,  and 
the  property  of  the  citizens  and  church  was  guaran- 
teed against  the  French  plunderers.  The  Supreme 
Junta  of  Spain  pronounced  the  funeral  oration  over 
Saragossa   in   the   following   prouunciamiento: 

A  Spanish       "Spaniards,    the    only     boon    which     Saragossa 

pronuncia-  x  '  ./  o 

miento  begged  of  our  unfortunate  monarch  at  Vittoria 
was  that  she  might  be  the  first  city  to  sacrifice 
herself  in  his  defence.  That  sacrifice  has  been  con- 
summated. More  than  two  months  the  murderous 
siege  continued;  almost  all  the  houses  were  de- 
stroyed, those  which  were  still  standing  had  been 
undermined;  provisions  were  nearly  exhausted,  am- 
munition all  consumed;  16,000  sick  were  struggling 
with  a  mortal  contagion,  which  every  day  hurried 
hundreds  to  tbe  grave;  the  garrison  was  reduced 
to  less  than  a  sixth  part;  the  general  dying  of  the 
pestilence;  O'Neille,  the  second  in  command,  dead; 
St.  Marc,  upon  whom  the  command  then  devolved, 
prostrated  by  the  fever.  So  much  was  required, 
Spaniards,  to  make  Saragossa  yield  to  the  rigor 
of  fate,  and  suffer  herself  to  be  occupied  by  the 


1809  Feb.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  301 

enemy.  The  surrender  was  made  upon  such  terms 
as  the  French  have  granted  to  other  towns,  and 
those  terms  have  been  observed  as  usual  by  the 
perfidious  enemy.  Thus  only  were  they  able  to 
take  possession  of  those  glorious  precincts,  filled 
only  with  demolished  houses  and  temples,  and  peo- 
pled only  with  the  dead  and  the  dying;  where 
every  street,  every  ruin,  every  wall,  every  stone, 
seemed  mutely  to  say  to  the  beholder.  Go,  tell  my 
king  that  Saragossa,  faithful  to  her  word,  hath 
joyfully  sacrificed  herself  to  maintain  her  honor  1" 

The  story  of  the  twofold  siege  of  Saragossa,  to- 
gether with  the  three  sieges  of  Gerona,  has  justly 
taken  foremost  rank  among  the  most  famous  sieges 
of  history.  Among  the  notable  achievements  of  the  proudest 
Peninsular  War,  the  defence  of  Saragossa  stands  of  Spain 
forth  as  one  of  the  proudest  traditions  of  Spain. 
Even  Napoleon,  who  had  watched  the  siege  from 
afar,  as  soon  as  he  learned  of  the  capitulation,  gave 
orders  to  have  a  special  work  prepared  giving  a  full 
record  of  this  siege,  "to  serve  as  a  model  for  all 
cases  where  an  open  city  is  attacked,  and  the  inhab- 
itants wish  to  defend  themselves." 

In  Catalonia,  during  the  same  winter,  the  French 
were  likewise  beset  with  difficulties,  but  were  vic- 
torious in  the  main.  Gerona  had  to  be  besieged 
again  and  so  had  Rosas,  but  these  annoyances  were 
offset  by  St,  Cyr's  victories  over  the  Catalonians  at 
Cardadeu,  Molino  Del  Rey,  Capelladaes  and  Vails.  |^,fj®  ** 
The  last  battle,  fought  on  February  25,  finished  the 
regular  campaign  in  Catalonia  for  a  time.  Coming 
so  closely  after  the  fall  of  Saragossa,  the  defeat  of 


802 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


March  1809 


Vails  spread  dismay  far  and  wide  in  Spain.  It 
looked  as  if  the  backbone  of  the  war  had  been 
broken.  Yet  St.  Cjr's  campaign,  though  costing 
great  efforts  on  the  part  of  all  troops  concerned 
in  it,  remained  without  corresponding  advantages. 
St.  Cyr  attributed  this  to  the  wretched  condition  of 
fatSfl^d'^'^^^  soldiers,  "destitute  and  neglected  because  the 
Emperor  disliked  their  chief  and  therefore  wished 
their  ruin."     in  this  St.  Cyr  was  prejudiced. 

Napoleon,  indeed,  had  been  watching  the  opera- 
tions of  his  scattered  divisions  in  Spain  with  con- 
stant anxiety.  This  is  attested  by  the  great  number 
of  records  containing  his  military  instructions  to  his 
various  generals.  After  the  fall  of  Saragossa,  with 
the  dispersal  of  the  Catalonians,  and  after  Marshal 
Soult's  second  invasion  of  Portugal  had  been  suc- 
cessfully accomplished,  Napoleon  breathed  more 
freely.  Cuesta's  defeat  at  Medellin,  on  March 
28,  settled  it.  Now  he  could  turn  his  attention  to 
another  point.  He  did  so  with  that  singleness  of 
view  which  his  secretaries,  Bourrienne  and  Mene- 
val,  have  characterized  as  one  of  the  most  striking 
features  of  his  genius. 

There  was  enough  to  distract  the  attention  of  a 
statesman.  In  England  it  looked  as  if  the  govern- 
ment were  falling  to  pieces.  The  old  king,  nearly 
blind,  and  mentally  unbalanced,  was  in  no  condi- 
tion to  bear  the  scandal  of  his  son's  disgraceful 
resignation  from  the  command  of  the  army;  nor  did 
the  Prince  of  Wales  stand  in  better  repute.  In  the 
Ministry,  Canning  was  arrayed  against  Castlereagh, 
the  new  Secretary  of  War,  and  each  took  pleasure 


Battle  of 
Medellia 


Affairs  in 
Elngland 


1809  March 


NINETEENTH    CENTURY  303 


in  foiling  the  other's  projects.  Regular  commerce 
was  upset  by  the  conditions  brought  about  by  the 
continental   blockade  and   the  American  embargo.  Low  ebb 

°       of  British 

English   credit  stood   at   a   low   ebb.      The  public  <=''«<^''^ 
funds  were  shaken  by  the  constant  drain  of  money 
for  the  British  expeditions  and  financial  subsidies 
to  Spain.     In  the  absence  of  specie,   discounts  at 
long  date  became  the  rule,  and  doubtful  joint-stock 
speculations  were  rampant.     At  the  close  of  1808, 
gold  coin  had  risen  at  one  leap  from  the  prevailing 
rate  of  103  to  a  steep  premium  of  113.     A  finan-Qe„erai 
cial  crash  seemed  close  at  hand.     In  Holland  and  depression 
France,  public  finances,  if  possible,  were  in  a  worse 
condition. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  in  Europe  when 
Thomas  Jefferson  relinquished  control  in  America. 
Reviled  by  his  political  opponents,  and  beset  by 
private  creditors,  he  passed  out  in  gloom.  His 
debts  amounted  to  $20,000.  This  practically  ^'ui^^^d  ^.^^^ 
him  as  a  grand  seigneur  of  Virginia.  He  returned  J^^^f^^ 
to  Monticello  alone  on  horseback,  as  he  had  come 
to  Washington.  To  a  deputation  of  his  townsfolk 
welcoming  him  home,  he  said:  "Of  you,  my  own 
neighbors,  I  may  ask  in  the  face  of  the  world, 
Whose  ox  have  I  taken  or  whom  have  I  defrauded  ? 
Whom  have  I  oppressed,  or  from  whose  hands  have 
I  received  a  bribe  to  blind  mine  eyes  therewith? 
On  your  verdict  will  I  rest." 

On  March  4,  Madison  was  inaugurated  as  Presi-;^*™?^ 
dent.      George  Clinton  of   New   York  went  in   as  rated"" 
Vice-President.      Most  of  the   former   members  of 
the  Cabinet  held  over.     They  were  Robert  Smith 


804  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  April  18O8 

of  Maryland,  Secretary  of  State;  Albert  Gallatin  of 
Pennsylvania,  Treasury;  William  Eustis  of  Massa- 
chusetts, War;  Paul  Hamilton  of  South  Carolina, 
Navy;  Gideon  Granger  of  Connecticut,  Postmas- 
ter, and  Caesar  A.  Rodney  of  Delaware,  Attorney- 
General.  Immediately  after  the  change  of  adminis- 
tration had  been  accomplished,  both  America  and 
England  took  mutual  steps  to  remove  the  embargo 
so  harmful  to  both  nations.  On  March  6,  Parlia- 
conciiia-     mcut  entered  into  a  debate  of  this  subject,  and  the 

tory  roeas- 

^^^  British  press   voiced   the   public   discontent.     The 

London  "Times"  went  so  far  as  to  say:  "If  Amer- 
ica will  withdraw  her  Embargo  and  Non-Importa- 
tion Acts,  so  far  as  they  relate  to  England,  provided 
we  rescind  the  Order-m-Council,  we  cannot  consider 
this  as  a  disgraceful  concession  on  our  part."  On 
March  15,  the  American  Cabinet  agreed  to  remove 
the  Embargo,  but  commercial  intercourse  between 
England  and  the  United  States  was  still  prohibited. 
On  April  7,  Canning  sent  instructions  to  the  British 
Minister  at  Washington,  Erskine,  to  settle  up  the 
"Chesapeake"  affair  and  the  commercial  relations 
between  the  two  countries  at  one  stroke.     The  at- 

"Cheaa- 

affa'lr  dis-  ^^^^  upou  the  "Chesapeake"  was  disavowed,  and 
some  impressed  American  sailors  were  returned. 
Admiral  Berkeley  was  to  be  recalled.  The  Ameri- 
can demand  for  a  court-martial  of  the  British  Ad- 
miral was  not  entertained.  President  Madison  ac- 
cordingly withdrew  the  demand,  but  added  that 
he  was  "none  the  less  persuaded  that  to  grant  the 
American  demand  would  best  comport  with  what  is 
due  from  his  Britannic  Majesty  to  his  own  honor." 


avowed 


1809 April  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  305 

It  was  an  unfortunate  sentence  destined  to  breed  ^''^'^'^'^'l. 
trouble.  Erskiue  further  offered  the  withdrawal  of  ^*"**°"^® 
the  late  British  Orders-in-Council  if  the  President 
would  issue  a  proclamation  renewing  trade  inter- 
course with  Grreat  Britain.  Within  two  days  Presi- 
dent Madison's  proclamation  to  this  effect  was  pub- 
lished in  the  "National  Intelligencer."  Erskine  in 
a  few  lines  declared  that  he  was  authorized  to  state 
that  "His  Majesty's  Orders-in-Council  of  January 
and  November,  1807,  shall  have  been  withdrawn,  as 
respecting  the  United  States,  on  the  ItOh  of  June 
next."  The  American  people  hailed  this  outcome 
with  delight.     Without  waiting  for  June,  the  mer- American 

°  .  trade  with 

chants  along  the  sea-coast  began  to  hurry  ships  and^g"g»'^^^ 
merchandise  to  British  ports.     For  the  time  being 
everything  seemed  plain  sailing  in  America. 

Not  so  in  Europe.  In  Sweden  the  people  were 
so  aroused  by  the  disastrous  consequences  of  the 
King's  antagonism  to  Napoleon,  the  reverses  of 
the  army  in  Norway  and  the  loss  oi  Finland, 
Stralsund  and  Eiigen,  that  they  rose  against  their 
king.  Young  Gustavus  Adolphus  IV.  drew  his  in  Sweden 
sword  on  the  deputation  that  came  to  protest 
against  a  further  continuance  of  the  war.  One 
of  his  nobles  disarmed  him,  saying:  "Sire,  your 
sword  was  given  to  you  to  use  against  the  enemies 
of  the  country,  not  to  be  drawn  on  your  own  sub- 
jects. We  desire  nothing  but  your  happiness  and 
the  prosperity  of  Sweden."  The  King  was  confined 
under  guard,  and  his  uncle,  the  Duke  of  Soeder- 
manland,  assumed  the  regency.  Within  ten  days Q^g^^^^^g 
Gustavus  Adolphus  abdicated,  to  be  succeeded  by  abdicate 


806  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  April  18W 

bis  uncle  as  King  Christian  XIIL  Napoleon  con- 
gratulated Sweden  on  having  got  rid  of  "the  su- 
premacy of  a  fool."  An  armistice  was  granted 
by  Bernadotte,  but  the  war  with  Eussia  went  on. 
The  aged  General  Klercker  commanded  a  Finnish 
army  at  Tavastehus,  where  Klingspor  arrived  with 
his  royal  orders,  which  were  for  retreat  and  evacua- 
tion of  the  country.  The  troops  were  deprived  of 
their  hopes  of  a  battle  and  forced  to  make  a  retreat 
of  nearly  600  miles,  suffering  from  cold  and  hunger. 
The  retreat  continued  without  interruption  for  two 
months,  until  the  army  in  April  found  itself  be- 
tween Brahestad  and  Uleoborg.  A  battle  was 
fought  at  Siikajoki,  April  18,  the  sub-commander, 
General  Adlercreutz,  receiving  instructions  to  make 
a  stand  against  the  enemy  until  the  safety  of  the 

fukafoki  ^^'^J  supplics  could  be  insured.  After  five  hours 
of  fighting,  the  Finns  won  a  glorious  victory  over 
the  Kussians,  but  royal  orders  for  a  continued  re- 
treat arrived,  Siikajoki  and  Sveaborg,  the  Gibral- 
tar of  the  North,  were  treacherously  surrendered 
to  the  Russians. 

Prussia  in       The  German  people  in  Austria  and  Prussia  were 

a  ferment  ■^        '■ 

likewise  seething.  In  Prussia  secret  patriotic  organ- 
izations, like  the  Tugendbund  and  Father  Jahn's 
Deutsche  Turner,  were  preparing  young  Prussia  for 
the  inevitable  conflict,  while  in  the  army  such  men 
as  Scharnhorst,  Blucher  and  Schill  had  their  hearts 
set  on  another  trial  of  strength  with  France. 
Austria  In  Austria,  the  preparations  for  war  were  quite 

Drepares  '  r       r  T 


?c 


open.     Since  the  Austrian  Emperor  had  been  left 
cut  of  the  Conference  of  Princes  at  Erfurt,  the  at- 


iwj'j  March  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  307 

titude  of  his  government  had  grown  almost  defiant. 
Count  Stadion,  Prime  Minister  since  the  Peace  of 
Pressburg,  had  become  convinced  by  the  proceed- 
ings in  Italy  and  Spain  that  Napoleon  had  designs 
on  all  the  thrones  of  Europe.  Special  suspicions 
were  excited  concerning  the  French  and  Russian 
intentions  as  to  Turkey  and  the  Balkans.  Stadion 
accordingly  encouraged  Archduke  Charles  in  bring- 
ing the  army  to  a  greater  strength  and  efficiency 
than  ever  before.  By  the  beginning  of  March,  1809, 
Austria  had  260,000  men  ready.  Prince  Schwarzen- 
berg  was  sent  to  St.  Petersburg  to  try  to  win  over 
Russia.  Alexander,  with  his  mind  set  on  Turkey, 
thought  that  he  had  more  to  fear  from  Austria 
than  from  France,  and  therefore  held  fast  to  Na- 

Russia 

poleon.     So  strong  were  the  hopes  of  a  general  na- ^'^^^s  with 

tional  rising  in  Prussia  and  other  parts  of  Germany, 

however,  that  the  Austrian  generals  based  the  plans 

for  their  campaign  on  such  an  event.     The  original 

intention  was  to  take  the  offensive  against  the  French 

in  central  Germany,  where  they  were  weakest.    With  Austrian 

plan  of 

this  plan  in  view,  the  troops  were  massed  in  Bo-  campaign 
hernia.     Early  in  the  spring,  Count  O'Donnell,  the 
Austrian  Finance  Minister,  found  that  the  resources 
of  the  Empire  no  longer  sufficed  for  a  continued 
maintenance  of  the  army  on  a  war  footing. 

France,  too,  was  bleeding  to  death.  By  a  new 
levy  of  180,000  men  from  the  conscript  class  of 
1810,  Napoleon  had  forced  up  the  French  deficit 
to  nearly  one  hundred  million  francs.  No  relief 
was  in  sight  from  any  internal  fiscal  measures.  In 
Iwief,  the  strain  for  both  nations  was  growing  un- 


SOS  A     HISTORY    OF    THE  March  180» 

Urgent      bearable,  yet  neither  could  afford  to  disarm.     War 

reasons  for  '   -^ 

''"'  had  become  only  a  question  of  time. 

On  March  2,  Metternich,  the  Austrian  Ambas- 
sador at  Paris,  complained  to  Ghampagny  that  the 
measures  adopted  by  Napoleon  had  forced  Austria 
to  place  Germany  on  a  footing  of  war.  A  few 
weeks  later,  Metternich  coolly  answered  Napoleon's 
question:  "Why  does  your  Emperor  want  so  large 
Diplomatic  an  army?"  with  the  remark,  "To  make  his  ambas- 
sador respected  by  you."  Henceforward  it  was 
merely  a  race  in  the  completion  of  mutual  mili- 
tary preparations  before  actual  hostilities  should 
commence.  Marshal  Berthier,  at  Strasburg,  re- 
ceived urgent  orders  to  draw  together  all  remain- 
French      ing  French  srarrisons  at  Resrensburg.     Davoust  was 

plan  of  fo  &  &  G 

campaign  ^^  advaucc  a  corps  from  Wuerzburg  to  Regensburg. 
Lannes  was  despatched  to  Germany  to  concentrate  an 
army  corps  at  Augsburg.  In  Italy,  Murat  was  or- 
dered to  fall  upon  Rome  with  the  speed  of  lightning, 
to  seize  the  papal  dominions  and  replace  the  French 
troops  hurried  northward.  Nothing  restrained  the 
French  from  taking  the  offensive  but  the  Czar's  con- 
ditional agreement  with  Napoleon  to  aid  him  against 
Austria  only  in  case  France  should  be  first  attacked. 
Had  Austria  struck  then  and  there,  the  advantage 

^aol^p^et  might  have  been  on  her  side.  Unluckily  for  her, 
Archduke  Charles  at  the  last  moment  upset  the  ex- 
cellent plan  of  a  quick  advance  into  North  Ger- 
many, and,  instead  of  that,  marched  his  troop» 
down  to  the  Danube  to  safeguard  Vienna. 

Early  in  April,  things  were  brought  to  a  point  by 
mutual   acts  of   aggression      A   French  diplomatio 


1809  April  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  o09 

courier  between  "Vienna  and  Munich  was  arrested  onjp^^"""^: 

tional  uis- 

Austrian  ground  and   despoiled  of  his  despatches.  ^"""'^'"®* 
A  day  or  so  later,  Davoust's  outposts  violated  the 
territory  of   the   Austrian  Empire.     On  April   10, 
Metternich  demanded   his  passport.     On  the  same 
day,  the  peasants  of  the  Tyrol  from  one  end  of  the 
mountain  ranges  to  the  other  rose  to  shake  off  the  ^be Tyrol 
yoke  of  Bavaria.     In  anticipation  of  probable  hos- 
tilities by  the  middle  of  the  month,  Napoleon  had 
fixed  April  15  as  the  day  when  he  would  join  his 
armies  on  the  Danube.     On  the  night  of  April  12 
he  received  a  transmitted  semaphore  message  that 
Archduke  Charles  had  crossed  the  Inn,  and  that  his 
troops  were  even  then  marching  on  Munich.     The  ^ar  begun 
next    morning,    on   April    13,    Napoleon    left    the ' 
Elysee,  and  driving  night  and  day  reached  his  head- 
quarters at.Donauwoerth  on  the  fifth  day.     At  lud- 
wigsburg  and  Dillingen  lie  stopped  for  a  few  hours 
of   the  night   to   meet   the  kings  of   Bavaria  and 
Wurtemberg. 

As  the  Emperor  stepped  out  ot  his  carriage  at 
Donauwoerth,  on  April  17,  he  learned  that  the  Aus- 
trians,  turning  to  the  right,  were  slowly  marching 
on  Eegensburg.     "That's  a  lost  army,"  was  his  first  Napoleon 

on  the 

remark.  Napoleon  then  learned  for  the  first  time  Danube 
that  Berthier  had  failed  to  carry  out  his  instructions 
to  combine  the  French  armies.  Davoust  was  still 
north  of  the  Danube,  cut  ofiE  from  the  French  main 
army.  The  ruin  of  Davoust's  corps  appeared  immi- 
nent. Napoleon  on  the  instant  changed  his  plans 
and  hastened  to  Eggmuehl  with  three  corps  to  in- 
tercept the  inevitable  advance  of  the  enemy  against 


310  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  April  1809 

cbanseof  Davoust.      For   Bei'tliier   he   left   this   sharp   note: 

plans  "What  you  have  done  appears  so  strange  that,  if  I 
were  not  aware  of  your  friendship,  I  should  think 
you  were  betraying  me.  Davoust  is  at  this  moment 
more  completely  at  the  disposal  of  the  Archduke 
than  of  myself."  To  Mass^na,  at  Augsburg,  he 
wrote:  "Descend  toward  the  Danube  at  once. 
Leave  all  your  sick  and  stragglers  behind.  Never 
have  I  had  more  need  of  your  devoted  zeal,  activity 
and  speed!"  To  Davoust  he  sent  a  despatch  rider 
with  this  order:  ''Quit  Eegensbarg  at  once,  leaving 
one  regiment  behind !  Break  down  the  bridge  there 
so  that  it  cannot  be  repaired!  Manoeuvre  carefully 
between  the  river  and  the  Austrians!  Beware  of 
running  any  risk  of  an  engagement  before  joining 
me  near  Abendsberg!"     These  various  manoeuvres, 

^klffufms^  t'"-  which  Napoleon  concentrated  his  army  in  the 
face  of  threatening  disaster,  have  ever  been  con- 
sidered a  remarkable  demonstration  of  the  very 
higheso  skill  in  war. 

The  forces  whica  Napoleon  had  at  his  command 
were  thus  given  by  Chauvent:  In  Poland,  18,000 
commanded  by  Bernadotte;  in  Saxony,  12,000  un- 
der  Gratien;    in    Westphalia,    15,000    under    King 

of'^^.'ench  J^rome.  The  main  army  consisted  of  the  divi- 
sion of  Lannes  25,000,  that  of  Davoust  45,000,  that 
of  Mass^na  30,000,  Lefebvre's  30.000,  and  30,000 
more  under  Vandamme.  The  Confederation  of  the 
Rhine  furnished  12,000  men  besides  those  serving 
in  Spain.  Prince  Eugene  Beauharnais,  Vice-roy 
of  Italy,  had  45,000  at  his  disposal.  Marmont  had 
15,000  in  Dalinatia.     Altogether  there  were  287,000 


ncEuvres 


forces 


1809  April  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  311 

men  under  arms  with  560  guns,  besides  the  200.000 
still  in  Spain.  Under  the  immediate  eye  of  JSapo- 
leon,  150,000  Frenchmen  were  now  arrayed  against 
the  enemy,  numbering  about  200,000,  in  ten  army^j^  osaiof 
corps.  One  corps  under  Archduke  Ferdinand  oc-  forces*" 
cupied  Warsaw.  Another  corps  under  Archduke 
John  covered  northern  Italy  and  the  Tyrol.  Two 
army  corps  marched  from  Bohemia  straight  for  Re- 
gensburg.  One  remained  at  Linz  for  the  protection 
of  the  capital,  while  the  main  body,  comprising 
seven  corps,  zigzagged  between  Linz  and  Regens- 
burg,  so  as  to  effect  a  junction  with  either  at  short 
notice.  As  one  of  Napoleon's  most  ardent  biog- 
raphers has  said:  "The  mind  that  could  grusp 
such  interests  and  guide  such  enormous  com- 
binations must  have  been  one  of  extraordinary 
mold." 

While  the  allied  troops  on  the  Danube  were  skir- 
mishing on  all  sides.  Napoleon  issued  this  address: 
"Soldiers,  I  was  surrounded  by  your  bayonets  when 

1        T-i  c     A  •  -1  1  •  Napoleon's 

the  Jimperor  of  Austria  arrived  at  my  bivouac  at  add.  ess  to 

his  army 

Austerlitz.  You  heard  him  implore  my  clemency 
and  swear  me  eternal  friendship.  Conquerors  in 
three  wars,  we  granted  everything  to  Austria  in  our 
generosity.  Three  times  has  she  perjured  herself. 
Our  former  victories  are  our  guarantee  for  future 
triumphs.  Onward,  men,  and  let  the  enemy  see 
the  faces  of  his  conquerors!" 

In  the  Tyrol,  meanwhile,  the  peasants  had  chased 
the  Bavarian  garrisons  from  their  mountain  seats,  Peasants 

capture 

and   seized   the  capital,  iansbruck.   A  French  de- 1°^^'""<'^ 
tachment    under    Brisson,  marching  for  Innsbruck 


812  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  April  1808 

from  Iialy,  was  caught  unawares  and  had  to  sur- 
render. The  captives  numbered  two  generals,  ten 
staff  officers,  100  field  officers  and  1,000  men.     In 

Pordenone 

andsaciie  Italy,  Archduke  John  defeated  the  French  at  Por- 
denone and  again  at  Sacile. 

By  April  18,  Napoleon,  while  urging  Mass^na  to 
do  his  utmost  to  reach  Pfaffenhofen  on  the  next 
night,  gave  this  precis  of  the  situation  on  the  Dan- 

French       ubc:  "One  word   will  explain  to  you  the  urgency 

Fof&ttie  of  affairs.  Archduke  Charles,  with  80,000  men, 
deboucbed  yesterday  from  Landshut  on  Regens- 
burg.  The  Bavarians  skirmished  all  day  with  his 
advance  guard.  To-morrow  (April  19)  all  the 
troops  that  can  be  mustered  at  Pfaffenhofen  with 
the  Wurtembergers  and  our  cuirassiers,  should  be 
in  condition  to  fall  upon  the  rear  of  Prince  Charles. 
A  single  glance  must  show  you  that  never  was  there 
more  pressing  need  for  diligence  than  now.  1  con- 
sider Prince  Charles  ruined  without  resource  if 
Oudinot  and  your  three  divisions  are  on  his  rear 
before  daybreak  on  the  19th.  On  the  18th,  19th 
and  20th  the  whole  affair  of  Grermany  will  be 
decided." 

On  the  night  of  April  19,  after  the  Austrians 
had  been   outmanoeuvred   in  a  sanguinary  encoun- 

b^^g  ^'  ter  at  Abendsberg,  Napoleon  learned  of  the  safe 
arrival  of  Davoust  at  Neustadt.  In  great  elation 
he  mounted  his  horse  and  galloped  along  the  entire 
line  of  his  bivouac  fires.  Next  morning  he  pushed 
his  main  army  between  the  Austrian  forces  under 
Archduke  John  and  Hiller.  The  French  divisions 
of  Lefebvre  and  Mass6na,  operating  together,  over- 


1809  April  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  318 

threw  Hiller's  corps  and  drove  the  Austrians  back 
to  Landshut.  Davoust  cleverly  extricated  his  de-ertT^catea 
tached  array  from  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the 
Danube,  and  joined  Napoleon's  main  body  on  the 
left.  On  the  22d,  Archduke  Charles  made  a  rapid 
advance  southward,  hoping  to  overwhelm  Davoust. 
Instead  of  that,  he  came  upon  Napoleon's  main  army 
united  to  Davoust's  strong  division  at  Eggmuehl.  EggmueU 

The  battle  that  followed  was  waged  in  modern 
style,  that  is,  by  different  bodies  of  troops,  ex- 
tended over  a  large  area,  manoeuvring  against 
different  positions.  The  Austrian  centre  under 
Eosenberg  was  overthrown  by  Vandamme's  divi- 
sion. The  hottest  fighting,  that  on  the  left,  fell  to 
Davoust's  men.  The  most  decisive  part  of  the 
complicated  battle  was  Lannes's  successful  flanking  outflanks* 
movement  toward  Regensburg.  Napoleon  made  his 
headquarters  on  a  rise  in  the  ground,  and  there  re- 
ceived a  constant  stream  of  aides-de-camp,  bringing 
the  bulletins  from  the  various  corps  commandants. 
One  officer,  while  pointing  out  the  position  of  his 
command  to  Napoleon,  had  his  arm  torn  oft'  by  a 
cannon  shot.  Not  long  afterward.  General  Cervoni, 
while  in  the  act  of  opening  a  map  before  Napoleon, 
was  killed  by  a  shell.  The  officers  of  the  Old  Guard 
tried  to  drag  the  Emperor  away,  but  he  waved  them 
off  impatiently:  "What  is  the  use?  I  must  see  how 
matters  are  going." 

Late  in  the  afternoon,  when  the  belated  Austrian 
cavalry  rode  into  battle  line,  the  Emperor  had  re- 
course to  one  of  those  magnificent  cavalry  charges 
which  were  carried  so  far  in  the  Napoleonic  cam- 

XlXth  Century— Vol.  1—14    . 


8U 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


AprU  1809 


A  Napo- 
leouic 
cavalrj' 
charsre 


Austrian 
troopers 
out- 
matched 


paigns.  At  sundown  he  ordered  the  imperial  cav- 
alry, which  had  been  held  in  reserve  all  day,  to 
charge  the  massed  squadrons  of  Austrian  cavalry 
riding  into  the  firing-line.  As  the  cuirassiers  of 
Bessieres,  incased  in  glittering  breastplates,  and 
helmets  surmounted  by  plumes,  cantered  to  the 
crest  of  the  slope,  a  mighty  shout  arose  from 
the  French  infantry  below.  The  soldiers  felt  sure 
that  a  blow  was  now  to  be  struck  that  would  prove 
decisive.  With  a  wild  battle  cry  of  "Vive  L'Em- 
pereur,"  the  imperial  cavalry  charged  into  the 
plain.  The  Austrian  cuirassier  squadrons,  led  by 
Prince  Lichtenstein,  galloped  forth  to  meet  them. 
With  sabres  flashing  the  contending  hosts  of  horse, 
men  fell  upon  each  other  and  fought  it  out  in  plain 
sight  of  the  infantry,  until  darkness  spread  over  the 
battlefield.  In  the  hand-to-hand  struggle,  the  Aus- 
trian horsemen,  though  better  mounted,  were  no 
match  for  the  French  cuirassiers,  since  they  were 
armed  only  with  breastplates,  while  the  French 
cuirass  incased  the  body  all  around.  Whenever 
an  Austrian  trooper  was  caught  in  the  rear,  he 
was  doomed,  and  even  in  face-to  face  fencing  the 
French  swordsmen  soon  learned  to  rely  on  side 
thrusts.  At  length  the  Austrian  squadrons,  hav- 
ing lost  nearly  two-thirds  in  killed  and  dismounted, 
wheeled  in  dismay  and  rode  for  life.  Napoleon's 
imperial  guards  followed  in  mad  pursuit.  The 
French  infantry  heard  the  shout  of  their  conquer- 
ing comrades  and  charged  the  wavering  enemy  with 
Betreatto  ^^^  bayonct.  The  Austrians  fell  back  in  the  dark- 
i^jjens-     j^^gg  ^j^j  retreated  during  the  night  to  Regensburg. 


1B09  April  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  315 

Next  morning,  April  23,  the  Austrians  at  Re- 
gensburg  recrossed  the  Danube  by  two  pontoon 
bridges.  The  French  did  not  force  their  way  into 
the  town  until  nearly  all  the  Austrians  had  crossed. 
A  small  portion  of  the  rearguard  was  captured. 
The  fighting  of  the  last  five  days — at  Tbann, 
Abendsberg,  Landshut,  Eggmuehl  and  Regensburg 
— had  changed  the  doubtful  backward  movement  of  vfctorious 
the  French  into  a  victorious  advance.  JNever  hadtheime 
strategic  difficulties  of  such  an  extremely  awkward 
character  been  solved  with  greater  coherence  or  de- 
spatch. Napoleon's  severest  critic,  Lanfrey,  even, 
has  felt  compelled  in  this  instance  to  give  the  great 
captain  his  due.  He  says:  "The  opening  of  this 
campaign  is  a  model  of  scientific  warfare;  a  master- 
piece alike  of  boldness  and  of  prudence  worthy  in  g^f^^cat^^ 
all  its  points  of  the  first  campaign  in  Italy,  and  also^"^*^ 
above  criticism,  but  for  the  falsehoods  contained 
in  Napoleon's  bulletins."  This  is  an  allusion  to 
Napoleon's  claim  that  the  whole  Austrian  army  of 
300,000  men  had  been  crushed,  and  that  they  had 
lost  one  archduke,  twenty  generals,  and  upward  of 
30,000  prisoners.  So  far  as  can  be  judged  from  the 
widely  conflicting  estimates,  the  Austrian  casualties 
probably  amounted  to  less  than  one-third  of  that 
number.  At  St.  Helena,  Napoleon  said  of  this  cam- 
paign: "The  greatest  military  manoeuvres  1  ever 
made,  and  those  for  which  I  give  myself  most 
credit,    were   executed    at   Eggmuehl.     They    were  Napoleon's 

.     r>     •      1  •  1  -HI  own  estl- 

mfinitely  superior  to  those  at  Marengo,  or  to  any  mate 
other  of  my  actions." 

As  the  French  were  advancing  on  Regensburg, 


816  A    HISTORY  OF   THE  April  1809 

V"^  Napoleon  was  wounded  in  the  foot  by  the  bullet  of  a 

Emperor  r  -^ 

wounded  fyrolese  sharpshooter.  The  news  that  the  Emperor 
had  been  shot  spread  through  the  French  ranks.  It 
caused  such  a  commotion  that  Napoleon  remounted 
his  horse  and  rode  along  the  lines  until  loss  of  blood 
made  him  faint.  In  its  effects  the  wound  proved 
trifling,  and  the  Emperor  continued  in  active  com- 
M^treaf"^  mand  at  Regensburg.  The  Austrians  retreated 
Danube^  dowu  the  Dauubc.  Archduke  Charles  marched  for 
Bohemia,  hoping  to  threaten  the  French  advance  on 
Vienna  from  their  flank  and  rear.  Hiller  tried  to 
cover  the  capital  by  recrossing  the  Inn,  but  had 
to  deviate  from  his  march  at  Linz,  when  he  found 
that  Mass^na's  pursuers  were  outflanking  him.     At 

General  ^  ° 

flanked"*^  the  river  Traun  he  made  a  stand  in  the  little  strong- 
hold of  Ebelsberg.  Had  the  French  possessed  them- 
selves with  patience.  Marshal  Lannes  could  have 
made  the  enemy's  position  on  the  Traun  untenable, 
by  flanking  the  Austrians  at  Steyer.  As  it  hap- 
pened, Greneral  Coehorn,  a  Corsican  hot- bead,  com- 
manding the  so-called  "infernal  legion"  of  Corsi- 
cans  and  Bersaglieri,  arriving  prematurely,  wildly 
dashed  his  men  against  the  overwhelming  forces 
of  the  Austrians.  A  wooden  bridge,  some  600  feet 
long  and  protected  at  each  end  by  bastions,   sur- 

charpeof   mountcd   by  a  citadel   with  100  pieces  of  cannon, 

the    infer-  ^  r  7 

Bai  legion '  ^^^^^  stormcd  by  the  frenzied  Italians.  Colonel 
Clapareda,  in  the  face  of  fearful  losses,  led  his 
men  to  the  assault  again  and  again,  and  at  last 
succeeded  in  breaking  down  the  city  gate.  Other 
French  troops  entered  into  the  fight,  and  a  detach- 
ment of  Legraud's  division  got  a  foothold  in  the 


ie09May  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  317 

little  town.  At  last  Mass^na  brought  up  his  whole 
division,  yet  the  Austrians  held  firm  until  after 
nightfall,  and  then  evacuated  the  place  in  good 
order.     Napoleon,   who  arrived  next  day,  was  dis-^,   „  ,. 

^  '  -'  '  The  fight 

mayed  to  find  that  nearly  6,000  of  his  men  had  bLg''^'^' 
fallen  before  Ebelsberg,  and  that  Clapareda's  bri- 
gade was  practically  wiped  out.  Massena  was  cen- 
sured for  countenancing  a  frontal  attack,  when 
flanking  manoeuvres  were  possible,  but  the  Corsi- 
can  leader  Coehorn  was  patted  on  the  back  as 
"a  man  of  great  worth."  The  pursuit  of  the  Aus- 
trians was  kept  up  with  vigor.  Neither  Hiller's 
division  nor  Archduke  John's  forces  were  able  to 
get  a  foothold  in  front  of  Vienna.  By  the  middle 
of  May  they  barely  succeeded  in  joining  forces  at 
Krems  on  the  other  side  of  the  Danube  many  miles 
beyond  Vienna. 

Vienna  now  lay  open  to  the  French  columns.  On  Vienna  left 
the  way  there  the  Emperor's  staff  rode  by  the  ruins  ^^''^^^ 
of  Dierstein,  the  dungeon  of  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion. 
Napoleon  turned  to  his  companions,  Berthier  and 
Lannes,  and  said:  "He,  too,  fought  in  Syria,  and 
he  had  better  luck  than  we  had  at  St.  Jean  d'Acre. 
Still  the  lion-hearted  was  no  more  valiant  than  you, 
my  brave  Lannes.  Those  were  barbarous  times, 
which  they  now  have  the  folly  to  represent  to  us 
as  so  heroic." 

On  May  10,  the  French  appeared  before  Vienna. 
The  old  part  of  the  city,  containing  some  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants,  was  still  encircled  by  the  an- 
cient walls  that  had  once  kept  out  the  Turks.  In 
the  city,  Archduke  Maximilian  had  15,000  regulars 


S18  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  May  1809 

with  10,000  militia.  He  sacrificed  the  suburbs  with 
•  their  population  of  nearly  200,000,  and  tried  to  de- 
fend the  city  from  behind  the  old  ramparts. 

urbsgiven  Captain  Marbot,  bearing  Napoleon's  summons  to 
surrender,  was  struck  down  in  the  street.  Next  day 
Old  Vienna  was  bombarded.     For  thirty-six  hours 

^ent*'of**'  3,000  shells  were  dropped  into  the  city.  Toward 
evening  a  flag-of-truce  bearer  from  the  Archduke 
begged  Napoleon  to  spare  the  imperial  palace, 
where  the  Princess  Marie  Louise  had  been  left 
behind  on  account  of  illness.  She  was  Napoleon's 
future  bride.  As  one  historian  has  said  of  the  inct- 
dent:  "It  was  by  the  thunders  of  artillery  and  the 
flaming  light  of  bombs  across  the  sky  that  Napo- 
leon's first  addresses  to  the  Archduchess  Marie 
Louise  were  made."  Archduke  Maximilian  after 
the  second  day  gave  up  the  struggle,  and  burning 
the  great  bridge  of  Tabor  behind  him  crossed  the 

Spituiates  l^anube.  His  successor  in  command  capitulated 
within  a  short  time.  Napoleon  entered  the  city 
Just  one  month  after  he  had  left  the  Elys^e.  Gen- 
eral Andreossy  was  appointed  governor  of  Vienna. 
Two  days  after  his  entry  into  Vienna,  Napoleon 
issued  the  famous  decree  deposing  the  Pope.  In 
his  proclamation  he  said:  "Since  the  time  of  Charle- 
magne, the  union  of  spiritual  and  temporal  power 
has  been  and  still  is  a  source  of  dissension.  The 
Popes  have  bat  too  frequently  availed  themselves  of 
the  one  to  support  their  pretensions  to  the  other." 

deprfved^of -^^^    the    papal    dominions    were    united    with    the 

temporal  Prg^ch  Empire.  Rome  was  declared  a  free  im- 
perial city.     The  Vatican  was  reserved  for  the  use 


1809  May  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  319 

of  the  Pope  without  restrictions,  and  a  pension  of 
2,000,000  francs  was  accorded  him.    Pope  Pius  Vll.  Sfmmu. 

,   .      ,  ,  line  •  nicated 

launched  his  long-threatened  bull  or  excommunica- 
tion against  Napoleon.  After  that  the  Pope's  fate 
was  but  a  question  of  time. 

During  these  days  Joseph  Haydn,  "the  favorite  of 
the  Austrian  people,"  lay  dying.  During  the  siege 
a  French  bomb  burst  near  his  house  in  the  Kleine 
Steingasse  (now  Haydn  Strasse),  where  the  great 
composer  lay.  After  the  occupation  a  French  officer, 
a  passionate  admirer  of  Haydn's  music,  visited  the 
old  composer  and  played  to  him  a  selection  from 
his  "In  tempore  Belli."  The  dying  maestro  was 
deeply  affected  and  embraced  his  caller  at  parting. 
On  May  26,  he  called  his  family  around  him,  and 
having  himself  carried  to  the  piano,  solemnly 
played  his  great  national  anthem,  "Gott  erhalte 
unseren  Kaiser."  A  short  time  after  this  ^^^^^3^^ 
died.  Mozart's  requiem  was  performed  in  his°*^  ^ 
memory,  and  his  funeral  was  attended  by  many 
French  officers  and  a  French  guard  of  honor.  In 
Paris  a  sacred  cantata  by  Cherubini,  written  on  a 
previous  false  report  of  his  death,  was  given  in  his 
honor. 

Haydn's  rank  in  the  history  of  music  is  of  the 
first  importance.  The  foremost  among  his  contem- 
poraries, such  as  Mozart  and  Beethoven,  called  him 
Father  Haydn.  All  his  works,  multitudinous  as 
they  were,  are  characterized  by  lucidity,  perfect 
form   and   rich   development.      To   him   the   world 

^  Haydn's 

owes  the  evolution  of  the  two  finest  phases  of  the ^^^"^^J^'^^"* 
sonata  form,  the  orchestral  symphony  and  the  quar-  ""'*'*' 


820  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  May  1801 

tet.  Chamber  music  was  brought  by  him  to  its 
greatest  perfection.  "It  was  from  Haydn,"  said 
Mozart,  '*tbat  I  first  learned  the  true  way  to  com- 
pose quartets."  Haydn's  masses  and  offertories  to 
this  day  are  among  the  favorite  pieces  played  on 
the  church  organs  of  Austria  and  Germany.  His 
celebrated  oratorios  have  remained  unsurpassed. 
Haydn  may  be  said  to  have  stood  in  direct  line 
of  succession  from  Sebastian  Bach,  the  great  pro- 
influence    taofonist  of   modern  music.      Bach  said  of   Haydn 

ofSebas-  ^ 

tianBacb  that  he  alonc  fully  understood  his  music,  and  knew 
how  to  build  on  it.  His  worldly  success  dated  from 
the  time  that  Prince  Anton  Esterhazy  engaged  him 
as  a  second  leader  of  his  private  orchestra  in  Hun- 
gary. There  Haydn  met  Gluck,  the  great  com- 
poser. After  the  death  of  Prince  Anton,  his  suc- 
cessor, Prince  Nicolaus,  made  him  first  leader  of 
Encour-  the  orchcstra.  Nicolaus  Esterhazy  was  a  typical 
thlElt^r"  Hungarian  magnate,  very  rich  and  an  enthusiastic 
patron  of  the  arts.  Haydn  himself  said:  "The 
Prince  was  always  satisfied  with  my  work.  Not 
only  had  I  the  encouragement  of  his  constant  ap- 
proval, but  as  a  conductor  of  his  orchestra  I  could 
make  experiments,  observe  what  produced  an  effect 
and  what  weakened  it,  and  was  thus  in  a  position 
to  improve,  alter,  make  additions  or  omissions,  and 
fplfrecia-  ^^  ^^  '^^^^  ^^  ^  plcascd.  I  was  cut  off  from  the 
tbeVheip  world;  there  was  no  one  to  confuse  or  torment  me, 
and  I  was  forced  to  become  original."  When  the 
castle  of  Esterhazy  burned  down  in  1779,  Haydn 
got  up  his  famous  "Farewell  Symphony,"  in  which 
one    musician   after  another   arises   and  leaves   his 


1809  May  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  321 

place  in  the  orchestra,  until  only  the  leader  is  left. 
"If  all  go,"  said  the  Prince,  "we  may  as  well  go 
too,"  and  so  the  company  was  dispersed,  until  Castle 
Esterhazy  was  rebuilt.  In  the  new  theatre  Haydn  j^^^  .  ^j 
performed  Gluck's  operas,  and  there  he  also  met  the com°p°os1"* 
Czarina  of  Russia,  wife  of  Paul,  to  whom  he  dedi- 
cated his  famous  Eussian  songs  and  quartet  com- 
posed in  1802.  i^'or  the  Russian  Princess  he  also 
wrote  the  opera,  "Orlando  Paladino,"  the  most  fre- 
quently performed  of  all  his  operas.  About  this 
time  Mozart  dedicated  his  first  six  quartets  to 
Haydn  in  terms  of  filial  affection.  Haydn  said 
to  Mozart's  father:  "I  declare  to  you  on  my  honor Frie'idship 

•^  -^  ot  Mozart 

that  I  consider  your  son  the  greatest  composer  *'^'*  ^^y^ 
I  have  ever  heard."  After  the  death  of  Prince 
Nicolaus,  Salomon  of  London  hastened  to  Vienna 
and  induced  Haydn  to  come  to  London.  He  did 
this  regardless  of  the  protests  of  the  King  of  Naples, 
then  in  Vienna,  who  wished  Haydn  to  come  to  Italy 
with  him.  Mozart  saw  Haydn  off  and  promised  to 
follow  him  to  London,  but  before  he  could  do  so  he  Haydn 

.^  goes  to 

died.  In  London  Haydn  was  lionized  by  the  musi-  England 
cal  set.  The  University  of  Oxford  made  him  a 
doctor  of  music.  One  of  Haydn's  quartets  was  per- 
formed at  the  royal  palace,  with  the  Prince  of  Wales 
playing  the  bass  violin,  the  Duke  of  York  the  viol, 
and  the  Princess  of  Wales  at  the  piano.  In  London 
Haydn  was  visited  by  J.  B.  Cramer,  then  twenty 
years  old,  and  by  Clementi,  the  boy  violinist,  for 
whose  benefit  Haydn  performed  his  new  "Seven 
Words."  He  also  aided  in  the  Handel  commemora- 
tion at  Westminster  Abbey.     When  the  Hallelujah 


3*22  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  May  1809 

chorus  swept  through  the  nave,  Haydn  wept,  and 
said  with  a  choking  voice,  "He  is  the  master  of  us 
all."  His  symphonies  written  at  this  period,  known 
mnn Ivm.  ^^  ^^®  Salomou  Symphonies,  are  accounted  his  great- 
phomes  ^^j.  QpcJiestral  works.  When  he  returned  to  Germany 
next  year  he  met  Beethoven  at  Bonn,  and  passed 
judgment  on  a  new  cantata  of  that  rising  composer. 
Beethoven  followed  him  to  Vienna  and  became  his 

Beethoven  -i        t       i  tt        i  . 

meets  pupil.  In  later  years  Haydn  was  again  summoned 
to  London  to  write  six  more  symphonies.  He  re- 
turned to  Vienna  with  a  competence  sufficient  for 
the  rest  of  his  days.  During  the  last  decade  of  his 
life   Haydn  wrote    his  greatest   works,   "The  Four 

The -crea- Seasons,"  and  his  stupendous  "Creation,"  inspired 
by  Milton's  "Paradise  Lost."  His  last  composition 
was  the  vocal  quartet,  "Hin  ist  alle  meine  Kraft" — 
"My  strength  is  gone;  old  and  weak  am  I."  His 
last  public  appearance  was  at  the  performance  of 
his  "Creation"  at  the  University  of  Vienna  in  1808. 
He  was  taken  to  the  hall  in  an  armchair,  and  was 

Haydn's     SO  overcomc  by  his  own  music  that  he  had  to  be 

last  ap- 
pearance   carried  away.     As  he  was  leaving,  the  ladies  of  the 

court 'thronged  around  him,  and  Beethoven,  rushing 
forward,  embraced  and  kis.sed  him.  Among  the 
pupils  left  behind  by  Haydn  besides  Beethoven 
must  be  mentioned  Ignace  Pleyel,  Edward  Von 
Weber,  the  Countess  Thun,  Streck,  Neucomm 
and  Lessel. 

At  the  time  that  Haydn  died,  Napoleon  had  al- 
ready removed  his  headquarters  from  Schoenbrunn 
to  the  island  of  Lobau,  where  the  Danube  branches 
below  Vienna.     There  the  French  established  them- 


1809  May  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  823 

selves  with  a  view  to  crossing  the  river  to  give 
battle  to  the  Austrians  on  the  northern  shore.  The 
strength  of  Austria's  remaining  forces,  and  the 
threatening  situation  elsewhere,  made  a  decisive 
battle  a  political  necessity  for  Napoleon. 

The  British  fleet  under  Lord  Cochrae,  on  April 
11,  had  destroyed  a  French  squadron  in  the  roads  ^^1°^^ 
of  Aix.  Four  French  warships  were  blown  up  and^rx^^^** 
seven  were  driven  ashore.  In  the  south  the  second 
French  occupation  of  Portugal,  after  the  successful 
seizure  of  Oporto,  ended  in  failure;  when  Craddock, 
commanding  the  weak  British  forces  there,  had  been 
superseded  by  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley,  the  fortunes 
of  war  turned  against  the  victor  Soult.  The  British 
crossed  the  Douro  in  spite  of  French  resistance,  and 

Wellington 

drove  the  enemy  back  to  Vallonga.  Soult  was  so  crosses  the 
hard  pressed  that  he  had  to  burn  his  wagons,  stores 
and  ammunition.  By  May  19,  he  finally  got  his 
army  out  of  Portugal,  having  lost  6,000  men  and 
all  his  guns.  Still  the  retreat  was  conducted  in 
so  masterly  a  manner  that  Soult's  reputation  as  a 
general  was  undiminished. 

In  Italy  there  was  similar  sharp  fighting  between 
the  Austrians  under  the  Archduke  John,  and  Prince 
Eugene  Beauharnais.  On  the  part  of  the  French, 
the  opening  of  the  Italian  campaign  was  badly  mis-  Eugene 

.  Beauhar- 

managed  by  Prince  Eugene.     His  reverses  did  notnais's 

^  J  o  blunders 

cease   until  Napoleon  ordered  General    Macdonald 
to  supplement  Beauharnais's  faulty  strategy  with  his 
more  experienced  counsels.     With  his  help  Eugene 
won  his  first  point  against  Archduke  John  at  Cal- ^**^J|^°' 
diero,  near  Verona,  and  passing  the  Piave  inflicted 


324  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  May  1809 

a  severe  defeat  on  the  Austrians.  Trieste  was  oc- 
cupied by  the  French.  The  headquarters  of  the 
French  army  of  Italy  were  established  at  Villach, 
with  advanced  posts  as  far  as  Klagenfurt.  In  the 
Tyrol  an  expedition   under  Lefebvre  gained  some 

headway  against   the   rebellious   peasants,    and   re- 
French 

retrain  the  capturcd  their  capital  of  Innsbruck.  In  the  inter- 
val 700  Frenchmen  and  1,800  Bavarians  had  been 
massacred  in  the  mountain  fastnesses  of  the  Tyrol. 
In  northern  Europe  likewise  public  affairs  bore 
a  threatening  aspect.  The  Czar  of  Russia,  after  his 
easy  victories  over  the  Swedes,  displayed  marked 
hesitation  about  living  up  to  his  part  as  the  ally 
mklwartn  ^^  Napolcon.  Only  when  the  French  came  out  as 
victors,  and  the  Austrian  offensive  had  been  seen 
to  fail  at  every  point,  did  Russia  at  last  declare  war 
on  Austria  and  move  an  army  corps  into  Poland. 
In  Prussia,  the  failure  of  the  Austrian  generals  to 
throw  the  campaign  north  of  the  Danube  caused 
deep  chagrin  to  those  patriots  who  had  counted  on 
arousing  Northern  Germany.  Some  of  the  hot- 
heads still  persevered  in  their  plans.  The  leaders 
of  this  military  conspiracy  were  the  Duke  of  Bruns- 
wick, Baron  Ddrnberg,  an  officer  in  the  service  of 
King  Jerome,  Major  Von  Schill,  a  Prussian  cavalry 
conspi>acy  officer  who  had  distinguished  himself  in  the  defence 
m  Prussia  ^£  (jfyW^^^g,  and  Lieutenant  Katt  at  Magdeburg.  It 
had  been  agreed  between  them  that  Dcirriberg  should 
raise  the  Hessian  standard  in  Westphalia,  and  turn 
Jerome's  own  army  against  him.  Schill  at  the 
same  time  was  to  march  from  Berlin  with  what- 
ever troops  he  could  collect,  and  try  to  arouse  the 


1800  May  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  826 

people  by  proclaiming  war  against  the  French  in 
defiance  of  the  government.  At  the  last  moment,  revolt" 
Dornberg  was  transferred  from  his  own  regiment 
to  the  command  of  other  troops  on  whom  he  could 
not  rely.  He  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  a  band 
of  peasants,  and  raised  the  standard  of  insurrection. 
King  Jerome's  household  troops  dispersed  the  riot- 
ers with  a  volley,  and  Dornberg  had  to  flee  for  his  Domberg'a 
life.  He  took  refuge  with  the  Duke  of  Brunswick.  Brunswick 
The  revolt  in  Hessia  was  ended.  In  the  meanwhile, 
Schill  blindly  did  his  part.  On  April  28,  he  led 
his  battalion  out  of  their  barracks  in  Berlin  and 
marched  his  men  out  of  the  city,  as  if  for  some 
routine  exercise.  Outside  of  the  city  he  was  joined 
by  a  small  detachment  of  cavalry  raiders  who  had 
been  let  into  the  secret.  He  addressed  his  troops 
and  offered  to  lead  them  against  the  French.  The 
proposition  was  received  by  the  soldiers  with  shouts 
of  approval.  The  march  to  Westphalia  was  begun. 
On  the  way,  many  volunteers  joined  the  movement. 
The  Elbe  was  crossed  and  Schill  prepared  to  fall  on  sd^nf* 

^  raid 

the  communications  maintained  by  the  French  with 
their  forces  operating  on  the  Danube.  On  reach- 
ing Halle,  Schill  learned  of  Napoleon's  victories 
near  Regensburg,  and  of  the  failure  of  Dornberg's 
coup  d'etat  in  Westphalia.  Henceforth  his  raid 
became  hopeless.  The  only  chance  for  Schill  and 
his  compromised  troops  was  to  escape  either  to 
Bohemia,  where  they  might  effect  an  ultimate  junc- 
tion with  the  retreating  Austrians,  or  to  fight  their 
way  to  the  sea  in  the  hope  of  rescue  from  British 
cruisers.     After  many  purposeless  marches,  Schill 


hoi>eIess 


Schill 
seizes 
Stralsund 


326  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  May  1809 

chose  the  latter  course.  Od  May  5,  he  was  over- 
rend^ld  taken  by  a  detachment  of  Westphalian  troops  from 
Magdeburg,  and  successfully  fought  his  way  clear 
of  them.  A  price  was  set  on  his  head.  Late  in 
May,  the  raiders  fell  in  with  3,000  Poles  and  Meck- 
lenburgers,  commanded  by  the  French  governor 
of  the  province.  SchiU's  1,800  men  fought  their 
way  through  the  French  brigade,  and  suddenly 
appeared  before  Stralsund,  just  as  the  French  gun- 
ners on  the  ramparts  were  firing  a  salute  in  honor 
of  Napoleon's  entry  into  Vienna.  The  garrison  was 
surprised,  and  a  short  hand-to-hand  fight  put  Schill 
in  possession  of  the  town  with  all  its  stores.  Until 
the  arrival  of  an  English  fleet,  Schill  hoped  to  make 
a  second  Saragossa  of  Stralsund.  But,  on  the  last 
day  of  May,  8,000  Danes  and  Frenchmen  moved  on 
the  town.  Capitulation  was  out  of  the  question  for 
the  rebels.  In  overwhelming  numbers  the  French 
stormed  the  town.  Fighting  in  the  streets,  Schill 
split  open  the  head  of  Carcaret,  the  Dutch  general. 
Major  °'  lie  was  himsclf  killed  by  a  cannon  ball.  With  him 
fell  one-third  of  his  men.  Five  hundred  of  his 
followers  under  Lieutenant  Brunow  cut  their  way 
out  and  escaped.  Of  the  prisoners  taken,  all  officers 
were  shot  at  Wesel,  and  fourteen  subalterns  at 
Brunswick,  while  the  common  soldiers,  about  500 
Fateof  the^°  number,  were  sent  to  the  galleys  at  Tunol.  Only 
laiders  ^2(j  survived  the  treatment  there.  SchiU's  head  was 
cut  off  and  sent  to  the  library  of  Leyden. 

Less  tragic,  if  no  less  unfortunate,  was  the  young 
Duke  of  Brunswick's  raid.  Of  his  duchy  nothing 
was  left  but  the  family  seat  of  Oels.     To  avenge  his 


1809  May  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  327 

father's  death  he  raised  2,000  volunteers.     His  fol- 


Failure  of 


lowers,  known  as  the  Black  Brunswickers,  on  ac-  Bruns-* 
count  of  their  coal-black  uniform  with  a  silver 
death's-head  on  the  helmet,  beat  off  several 
detachments  of  Westphalian  troops,  and  finally 
fought  their  way  through  a  strong  force  under 
General  Ochs.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Weser  they 
were  picked  up  by  British  cruisers,  and  were 
finally  enrolled  as  an  auxiliary  brigade  under 
Wellington  in  Spain, 

Such  were  the  threatening  diversions  which 
prompted  Napoleon  to  risk  a  decisive  blow.  His 
secretary,  Meneval,  who  was  attached  to  his  head- 
quarters at  the  time,  recorded  this  memorandum; 
"If  the  ill-arranged  enterprises  of  Dornberg,  Schill 
and  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  had  taken  place  some- 
what earlier  and  simultaneously,  French  domination 
in  the  North   would  have  been  seriously  leopard-  crosseTth* 

.  J     0       I  DaQube 

ized."  On  the  night  of  May  20,  Napoleon's  light 
cavalry  under  Count  Lasalle  crossed  the  Danube. 
They  were  followed  next  day  by  the  divisions  of 
Massena,  Lannes  and  the  Imperial  Guard,  40,000 
strong.  Next  night  the  same  troops  laid  pontoons 
and  crossed  the  second  branch  of  the  Danube  to  the 
north  bank.  Early  in  the  morning  the  villages  of 
Aspern  and  Esslingen  were  occupied  by  the  French,  pont^ 
The  Austrian  army  encamped  within  easy  striking  broken 
distance.  At  noon  a  number  of  heavy  rafts  and 
river  barges  loaded  with  stones  were  suddenly  cast 
loose  by  the  Austrians  above  Lobau,  and  came 
sweeping  down  the  river  headed  for  the  French 
pontoon  bridge  between  Lobau  and  Oberstof.     At 


328 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


May  1809 


French  re- 
serves 
cross  the 
river 


Battle  of 

Aspern 


Esslingen 


the  same  time  the  whole  Austrian  army  advanced 
upon  the  French  from  Bisamberg.  Fighting  began 
at  once  and  soon  grew  hot.  From  their  fresh  in- 
trenchments  at  Aspern  and  Esslingen,  the  French 
repulsed  all  the  first  onslaughts.  The  bridges  were 
repaired  in  a  hurry,  and  the  French  reserves  of 
heavy  cavalry  and  artillery  had  a  chance  to  get 
over  the  river.  By  nightfall  the  French,  who  had 
been  holding  out  against  the  Austrians  all  the  after- 
noon, were  almost  as  strong  as  their  enemy.  For 
Napoleon,  much  depended  on  the  timely  arrival  of 
Davoust's  division  in  Oberstof.  That  marshal  was 
ordered  to  cross  over  to  Esslingen  from  the  Island 
of  Lobau,  to  support  Lannes's  division  in  his  attack 
on  the  Austrian  centre,  while  Massena  engaged  the 
enemy  at  Aspern.  By  noon  next  day  Napoleon 
had  word  of  Davoust's  arrival.  His  reserves  could 
be  counted  on  for  the  afternoon.  In  the  meanwhile 
the  river  had  swollen,  and  the  Austrians  took  ad- 
vantage of  this  to  launch  whole  barns,  boathouses 
and  burning  mills  to  be  swept  down  against  the 
French  bridges  by  the  flood.  Lannes  received  or- 
ders to  advance  forthwith  from  Esslingen.  He  did 
so  with  his  two  veteran  divisions  of  grenadiers, 
supplemented  by  the  Young  Guard  and  thirty-two 
squadrons  of  horse  under  General  Lasalle,  one  of 
the  most  brilliant  of  French  cavalry  leaders.  The 
Austrian  centre  was  pushed  back,  so  that  the  Arch- 
duke's battle  line  became  almost  concave,  but  his 
regiments  held  their  own  manfully.  The  officers 
encouraged  their  men  by  personal  example.  The 
Archduke  himself  snatched  a  flag  from  one  of  his 


1809  May  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  329 

Zach  grenadiers  and  led  the  regiment  forward. 
Suddenly  the  French  attack  slackened.  Lannes, 
who  perceived  himself  unsupported,  gave  orders  to 
fall  back.  In  the  ranks  the  news  spread  that  the 
great  pontoon  bridge  had  again  given  way  before 
the  flood,  and  had  been  rent  asunder  by  the  floating  French 

retreat 

rams  of  the  Austrians.  This  cut  off  the  French  cut  off 
from  all  further  aid  or  from  a  safe  retreat.  Lannes 's 
soldiers  were  alarmed.  During  the  retreat  General 
Espagne  was  killed  and  St.  flilaire  was  mortally 
wounded.  The  backward  movement  was  covered 
with  cavalry  attacks  by  General  Lasalle.  The 
whole  French  cavalry  was  ordered  to  advance. 
The  combined  cuirassier  regiments  galloped  for- 
ward with  sabres  and  breastplates  flashing.  The 
Austrian  dragoons  could  not  sustain  the  shock. 
Together  with  their  horse  artillery,  they  were 
driven  back  between  the  Austrian  infantry  mass- 
ing in  squares.  The  French  cuirassiers  swept 
down  upon  these  in  solid  squadrons.  The  Aus-  ^^^^ 
trian  musketeers  and  gunners  held  their  fire  until 
the  heavy  cavalry  men  were  nearly  upon  them. 
When  the  white  of  the  horses'  eyes  could  be  seen, 
the  gunners  fired  at  pointblank  range  with  grape 
and  canister,  while  the  squares  volleyed.  The  fore- 
most horsemen  went  down  in  whole  platoons,  while 
those  that  followed  wheeled  in  panic,  so  as  to  make 
the  French  battle  line  revolve  upon  itself.  At  all 
points  the  attack  had  been  repulsed.  Prince  I^ich- Napoleon 
tenstein's  dragoons  pursued  the  fleeing  cuirassiers, 
and  the  French  line  of  infantry  was  made  to  waver. 
Napoleon  himself,  who  had  ridden  out  of  Aspern 


330  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  May  1809 

to  watch  the  success  of  the  cavalry  charge,  had  to 
take  refuge  within  a  square  of  his  guards.  Mem- 
bers of  his  suite  and  the  chief  equerr}'^  of  the  Em- 
press Josephine  were  taken  captive.  The  Austrian 
infantry  renewed  its  attack  on  the  village  of  As- 
pern,  and  at  Esslingen  the  struggle  became  des- 
perate. Marshal  Lannes,  while  conducting  the  re- 
treat across  the  Marchfeld,  was  struck  by  a  cannon 
ball  which  carried  away  both  his  legs.  When  Na- 
poleon heard  of  this,  he  left  his  post  of  observa- 
tion, and  hurried  to  the  litter  of  the  dying  general. 
There  he  threw  himself  on  his  knees,  and  with  a 
choking  voice  said:  "Lannes,  do  you  know  me?  It 
is  your  friend,  Bonaparte."  The  dying  marshal 
languidly  raised  his  head  and  murmured  incoherent 

Death  of  . 

Marshal     words.      According  to  Cadet   Gassicourt,    who   at- 

Laiines  '-'  ' 

tended  the  fallen  hero,  Lannes  said:  "I  am  dying 
for  you,  like  so  many  others.  You  will  not  mourn 
my  loss  any  more  than  the  rest.  Make  peace  before 
it  is  your  turn."  General  Petit,  on  the  other  hand, 
has  recorded  that  Lannes's  words  were  these:  "I  am 
dying  for  you  and  for  my  country.  Do  not  mourn 
my  loss.  May  you  live  and  save  the  army." 
Whatever  may  have  passed  between  the  two.  Na- 
poleon did  mourn  the  loss  of  Lannes  most  keenly. 
When  he  was  told  that  the  Marshal  was  dead,  the 
Emperor  sat  for  a  long  time  staring  dumbly  before 
him,  then  he  buried  his  face  in  his  hands.  To  Mas- 
s^na,  who  was  fighting  the  battle  of  his  life  at  the 
time,  he  said:  "Nothing  but  so  terrible  a  stroke 
could  have  coaxed  me  from  headquarters  at  that 
time."     To  Josephine  Napoleon  wrote:  "The  loss 


1809  May  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  831 

of  the  Duke  of  Montebello  deeply  afflicts  me. 
Thus  all  things  end.  If  you  can  contribute  to 
the  comfort  of  his  poor  wife  do  so."  In  later 
years  Napoleon  wrote  at  St.  Helena:  "At  the 
period  of  his  death,  Lannes  had  reached  the  high- 
est point  in  his  profession.  He  was  a  most  able  estfrn^e^of 
commander.  I  found  him  a  dwarf,  but  I  lost  him 
a  giant." 

Massena  had  a  hard  time  in  covering  the  French 
retreat  over  an  emergency  bridge  across  the  Danube. 
The  Austrians  made  assault  after  assault  on  the  two 
intrenched  river  towns,  and  with  the  help  of  inces- 
sant artillery  fire  succeeded  in  setting  fire  to  both. 
The  French  were  driven  from  Esslingen  into  a  nar- 
row peninsula  where  they  brought  up  at  the  brink 
of  the  river. 

At  last,  at  the  personal  request  of  Napoleon, 
General  Mouton  headed  his  famous  fusilier  guard 
in  a  bayonet  charge  against  the  Austrians,  and 
pushed  them  back  to  the  further  end  of  Esslingen.  ^°"^*'°^ 
For  this  exploit  the  Emperor  gave  to  Mouton  the*^*^ 
new  title,  Count  of  Lobau.  Long  after  nightfall 
the  last  French  detachment  returned  safely  over 
the  improvised  bridge  to  Lobau.  As  soon  as  they 
had  marched  over  the  bridge,  the  pontoons  were 
cast  loose.  Meanwhile  the  Emperor  sat  on  the 
river  bank  angrily  switching  his  boot  with  a  riding- 
whip.  "Are  you  satisfied,  little  corporal?"  cried 
one  of  the  wounded  guards,  as  they  marched  by  him. 
Later  in  the  night  Napoleon  was  ferried  across  the 
river  in  a  small  boat.  With  him  were  an  aide- 
de-camp  and  Lieutenant  Field-Marshal  Von  Weber 


mz 


A   HISTORY    OF   THE 


May  1801 


l?rench 
marshals 
advise 
retreat 


of  the  Austrian  army,  a  mortally  wounded  prisoner. 
"How  is  it  with  yon,  General?"  asked  Napoleon, 
as  he  heard  the  wounded  man  groaning.  "It  is 
well,"  said  the  dying  hero,  "Have  1  not  seen  you 
tremble."  Napoleon  said  no  more.  On  the  other 
shore  the  Emperor  held  a  council  of  war.  Mass^na, 
Davoust,  Bessi6res,  and  Berthier  joined  him.  Sa- 
vary,  who  was  present,  has  recorded  that  all  the 
Marshals  advised  further  retreat  across  the  other 
branch  of  the  Danube  and  thence  to  Vienna.  Na- 
poleon would  not  have  it.  "If  we  retreat  it  will  not 
be  a  retreat  to  Vienna,  but  to  Strasburg.  Our  allies, 
dismayed  and  made  treacherous  in  their  weakness, 
would  turn  against  us.  The  good  fortune  of  the 
Empire  would  be  at  an  end  and  the  grandeur  of 
France  destroyed.  You,  Mass^na  and  Davoust  can 
save  the  army.  Come!  show  yourself  worthy  of 
Napoleon  had  his  way.  It  was 
decided  to  remain  on  the  island  of  Lobau,  and  to 
intrench  it  against  all  attacks. 

The  drawn  battle  of  Aspern  and  Esslmgen  was 
found  to  be  one  of  the  most  bloody  affairs  of  the 
century.  In  its  fearful  losses  and  lack  of  result  to 
both  sides  it  can  only  be  compared  to  the  battle 
of  Eylau.  On  the  French  side,  the  casualties  were 
four  general  officers,  five  hundred  other  officers 
and  at  least  18,000  soldiers.  The  Austrians  reck- 
oned their  losses  at  16,000  killed  and  42,000 
wounded.     Both  sides  claimed  a  victory,  but  Na- 

French  .  ...  „  -  ,        . 

claim  the  polcou  got  his  couricrs  out  hrst,  and  so,  producing 
the  first  impression,  weakened  the  effect  of  the 
Archduke's  bulletins.     He  elaimed  but  1,100  dead 


Uapoleon 

Stands  firm  jQ^j.   q^q    p^g^^ 


1809  May  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  833 

and  3,000  wounded.  Only  "General  Danube,"  he 
avowed,  prevented  him  from  profiting  by  his 
victory. 

While  holding  the  Austrian  main  army  in  check 
on  the  Danube,  Napoleon  and  his  generals  made 
the  most  of  their  breathing  space.  The  Island  of 
Lobau  was  made  impregnable.  The  Tyrolese  revolt  ^J^^^^Q 
was  put  down  without  mercy.  General  Wrede  com-**"^"®"^ 
manding  the  Bavarians  succeeded  in  driving  the 
Austrians  out  of  Salzburg.  The  greater  part  of 
the  Tyrolese  occupying  the  valley  of  Strub,  having 
quit  fighting  on  Ascension  Day  to  go  to  church, 
were  overpowered  and  butchered.  The  stronghold 
of  the  Scharnitz  was  taken,  and  the  Bavarians  under 
Arco  penetrated  into  the  country  from  that  side. 
The  news  of  Napoleon's  defeat  at  Aspern  spurred 
the  Tyrolese  to  new  activity.  The  Austrian  Em- 
peror encouraged  them  with  this  statement:  "My 
faithful  county  of   Tyrol  shall   henceforward   ever  Francis' 

promise 

remain  incorporated  with  the  Austrian  Empire.  I 
will  agree  to  no  treaty  of  peace  save  one  forever 
uniting  the  Tyrol  with  my  monarchy."  The  Tyro- 
lese besieged  General  Deroy  in  Innsbruck.  Hofer, 
Eisenstecken  and  the  brave  Speckbacher  assembled 
their  peasants  on  the  mountain  of  Isel.     The  fight- Battle  of 

^  Innsbruck 

ing  lasted  three  days.  In  the  forefront  of  the  battle- 
line  could  be  seen  Hofer's  little  boy  Anderl,  who 
brought  the  men  their  ammunition,  and  Haspinger, 
a  red-bearded  monk  who  led  his  parishioners  gun 
in  hand.  The  Count  of  Stachelburg  from  Meran, 
who  fought  as  a  volunteer  among  the  peasants,  fell 
OP   this  occasion.     The  fortress  of   Kuffstein   waa 


334  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  May  1809 

likewise  besieged  by  a  detachment  under  Speck- 
bacher.  Finally,  General  Lefebvre  led  a  strong  col- 
umn of  30,000  Frenchmen,  Bavarians  and  Saxons 
into  the  Tyrol  and  ended  the  revolt,  amid  general 
bloodshed. 

General  Macdonald  commanding  the  right  wing 
of  the  French  array  of  Italy  compelled  4,000  Aus- 

Surrender 

ofLaybachtrians  Under  General  Meerfelt  to  surrender  at  Lay- 
bach,  in  Carinthia,  shortly  after  the  battle  of  Aa- 
pern.  On  May  25,  Prince  Beauharnais,  by  a  series 
of  successful  manoeuvres,  pushed  his  main  army 
through  to  Loeben  in  Steiermark,  and  overcame 
the  major  portion  of  Jellalich's  Austrian  corps. 
Goerz.  Klagenfurt  and  Trieste  opened  their  gates 
to  the  French.  Next  day  the  advance  outposts  of 
the  French  army  of  Italy  came  in  touch  with  those 

French 

join  forces  of  the  grand  army  at  Brack,  south  of  Vienna. 
This  event  had  been  anxiously  awaited  by  Na- 
poleon, who  sent  his  aide-de-camp  Lauriston  to 
cut  his  way  through  to  the  viceroy.  As  soon  as 
the  French  joined  forces.  Archduke  John  had  to 
fall  back  into  Hungary.  The  French  occupied  the 
whole  of  Tyrol  and  the  region  of  Salzburg,  Vorarl- 
berg,  Carinthia,  Frioul  and  Istria.  General  Mar- 
mont,    marching     up    from     Dalmatia,    penetrated 

retreat       through   Croatia   as   far   as   Fiume.     Prince   Beau- 

into  Hun- 
gary harnais  presented  himself  at  Napoleon's  headquar- 
ters on  the  Danube  by  the  end  of  May. 

In  the  north.  Napoleon's  Hussian  allies  made  so 
threatening  a  demonstration  against  Poland,  that 
Archduke  Ferdinand  felt  constrained  to  withdraw 
his  Austrian  forces  from  Warsaw  and  to  commence 


M09June  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  33fi 

his  retreat  southward.  On  the  other  side,  Russia 
was  relieved  of  embarrassment  by  the  conciliatory 
attitude  of  the  new  King  of  Sweden,  Charles  XIII., 
who,  having  failed  to  drive  the  Russians  from  west  Austrian* 

"  retreat 

Bothnia,    speedily   reversed    his   nephew's   warlike  po/and 
measures. 

Napoleon's  star  was  once  more  in  the  ascendant. 
It  was  at  this  moment  that  Pope  Pius  VII.  in- 
censed by  the  French  occupation  of  Rome,  launched 
his  bull  of  excommunication  against  Bonaparte: 
"Let  the  Sovereigns  of  the  world  learn  once  more 
that  they  are  subject  by  the  law  of  Jesus  Christ  to 

■  Napoleon 

our  throne  and  our  commands.     For  we  too  holdexcom- 

municated 

sovereignty,  and  a  sovereignty  far  more  noble;  for 
it  shall  not  be  said  that  spirit  must  yield  to  flesh, 
nor  the  things  of  heaven  to  those  of  the  earth." 
Napoleon  did  not  suffer  himself  to  be  distracted 
by  such  things.  He  simply  issued  orders  to  Murat 
to  have  the  Pope  seized  in  person  to  be  sent  as  a 
prisoner  to  Savona.  This  done,  he  devoted  himself  JpVkoner 
to  the  completion  of  his  military  campaign  with  ac- 
customed ardor.  The  pursuit  of  Archduke  John's 
forces  by  the  army  of  Italy  carried  them  well  be- 
yond the  borders  of  Hungary  to  the  banks  of  the 
Danube.  At  Raab,  Archduke  John  tried  to  join 
forces  with  the  Archduke  Palatine.      Beauharuais^ 

French 

attacked  him  and  was  aided  in  his  advance  by  Gten-"^^^ ^ 
era!  Grenier.  General  Macdonald  with  the  right 
and  General  Lauriston  with  a  detachment  of  the 
grand  army  came  up  toward  the  end  of  the  day. 
Together  they  defeated  the  Austrians  with  great 
loss.     The  town  Raab  was  invested. 


836  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  June  ISOQ 

Within  a  day  or  so  of  this  success,  it  so  happened 
that  Greneral  Suchet  at  Beichite  in  Spain  utterly- 
routed  a  Spanish  army  under  Greneral  Blake.     The 

Spaniards 

^"ctjte*  Spaniards,  though  largely  outnumbering  the  French, 
ran  away  without  tiring  a  shot,  and  threw  down 
their  arms.  Their  own  general  denounced  them  as 
cowards.  Wellington  wrote  to  his  brother,  the 
Marquis  of  Wellesley:  "1  am  of  the  opinion  that 
an  effort  should  be  made  immediately  for  clothing 
the  Spanish  troops  in  a  national  uniform.  This 
would  put  a  stop  to  the  custom,  which  I  am  sorry 
to  say  so  generally  prevails,  of  their  throwing  down 

ton'sel-     ^^i^ir  arms  and  accoutrements  and   betaking  them- 

pianation  ggi^gg  ^^  jBight  ou  pretence  of  their  being  not  sol- 
diers but  simply  peasants." 

A  few  days  after  this  the  stronghold  of  Raab  in 
Hungary  capitulated  to  General  Lauriston.  This 
threw   Hungary    open    to    the   French.      Napoleon 

foyai'"^  called  upon  the  Hungarians  to  secede  from  Aus- 
tria; but  no  one  responded.  Then  he  ordered  the 
advance  on  Pressburg.  When  the  news  of  these 
various  victories  had  been  spread  far  and  wide, 
Napoleon  thought  the  time  was  right  to  try  for 
another  decisive  blow  on  the  Danube.  In  response 
to  his  brother  Jerome's  clamors  for  help  in  West- 
phalia he  wrote  a  reassuring  letter:  "Take  things 
quietly.  You  have  nothing  to  dread.  The  English 
are  not  to  be  feared.  All  their  troops  are  in  Spain 
and  Portugal.  They  can  do  nothing  in  Germany. 
Even  so,  it  will  be  time  enough  when  they  come.  I 
always  wait  until  an  affair  is  ripe  and  I  understand 
it  well.      Then  I  act." 


1809  July  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  337 

In  three  weeks'  time  the  island  of  Lobau  had 
been  transformed  into  a  bristling  fort.  Material 
had  been  amassed  for  crossing  the  river  at  short 
notice.  Under  Napoleon's  directions  General  Ber« 
trand  had  constructed  two  bridges  on  spiles,  800 
yards  long.  Both  were  protected  against  floating 
rafts  and  fire-ships  by  a  breakwater  and  stockades.  ^^,^„gg  ^ 
Marines  in  boats  guarded  the  waterway  day  and^°''^" 
night.  The  big  bridge  was  wide  enough  for  three 
artillery  trains  to  pass  abreast.  The  other,  but 
eight  feet  wide,  was  intended  for  the  infantry.  Na- 
poleon grandiloquently  compared  his  work  to  that 
of  Csesar.  "Caesar's  bridge  over  the  Ehine,"  he 
said,  "was  thrown  across  m  eight  days,  to  be  sure, 
but  no  carriage  could  pass  over  it." 

On  July  2,  Napoleon  issued  his  orders  for  the 
crossing  of  the  Danube.  Everything  was  regu- 
lated down  to  the  most  minute  details,  and  the 
exact  time  was  fixed  for  every  man  to  act.  That 
same  night  a  feint  movement  was  made  on  Mill 
Island,  where  the  first  crossing  had  been  made. 
On  the  night  of  July  4,  during  a  heavy  rainfall, 
a  flying  bridge  was  floated  from  Alexander's  Island 
and  was  swung  in  place.  At  the  same  time,  six 
pontoon  bridges  were  strung  across  the  Danube, 
while  a  flotilla  of  ferryboats  made  incessant  trips  prencb  re 
to  and  fro  laden  with  troops.  A  sham  attack  at  Danube 
Aspern  and  Esslingen  diverted  the  Kleinau  grena- 
diers, who  guarded  the  Austrian  position  on  the 
water-front.  The  first  French  detachments,  as  they 
got  over  immediately  deployed  in  skirmish  order 

and    engaged    the   Austrians    in    regular    battle    at 
XlXth  Century— Vol  1—15 


838 


A    HISTORY   OF    THE 


July  1809 


Archduke 
Charles's 
mistake 


The  Aus- 
trian$> 
over- 
matched 


Essendorf,  five  leagues  from  Vienna.  The  rest  of 
the  army  crossed  the  Danube  during  the  night, 
marching  as  if  on  a  solid  road.  The  Austrians 
knew  something  was  under  foot,  but  did  not  rea- 
lize the  extent  of  the  movement.  The  Emperor  of 
Austria  in  his  anxiety  sought  out  his  brother 
Charles,  where  he  stood  on  the  river-bank  look- 
ing out  into  the  darkness.  The  Archduke  reckoned 
that  twenty-four  hours  at  least  would  be  needed 
to  effect  a  crossing  in  force.  "The  French  van- 
guard has  indeed  crossed  the  Danube,"  he  ad- 
mitted to  his  brother,  "and  I  am  letting  some  of 
the  rest  come  across."  "Very  good,"  said  Em- 
peror Francis,  "but  don't  let  too  many  of  them 
come  over."  This  remark  subsequently  became 
a   byword    in    the    army. 

Before  daylight,  200,000  French  soldiers — in- 
fantry, cavalry  and  artillery — had  crossed  the 
Danube.  At  sunrise  the  whole  army  was  ranged 
in  battle  line.  Oudinot  commanded  the  centre, 
Mass^na  the  left,  Davoust  the  right.  In  the  sec-" 
end  line  were  the  forces  of  Beauharnais,  Bernadotte, 
and  Marmont,  with  the  Bavarian  corps.  They  were 
supported  by  the  Guards,  and  the  heavy  cavalry 
and  artillery. 

Archduke  Charles  was  caught  at  a  woful  dis- 
advantage. Of  his  available  forces  20,000  were 
in  Hungary,  12,000  were  at  Vienna  under  Prince 
Roess,  6,000  at  Nussdorf,  and  as  many  more  before 
Krems.  This  left  him  weaker  than  the  French  by 
40,000  men.  The  result  could  only  be  a  foregone 
conclusion. 


tm  Ju\y  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  839 

It  was  a  magnificent  sight  when  Np.poleon's 
army  moved  to  the  advance.  The  slanting  rays 
of  the  morning  sun  shone  on  the  serried  lines  of 
warriors  clad  in  all  manner  of  colors  and  equip- 
ments, as  befitted  their  cosmopolitan  commands. 
Frenchmen,  Germans,  Italians,  Dutchmen,  Poles 
and  Dalmatians,  marching  under  their  respective 
colors  and  standards,  surged  forward  against  the 
white  clad  lines  of  the  German  Austrians,  Mag- 
yars, Roumanians,  Czechs  and  Slavonians.  The 
French  Emperor  on  a  white  charger  galloped  along 
the  front  of  his  battle  line,  and  repeated  his  last 
instructions  to  his  marshals.  The  artillery  opened 
the  battle  from  the  heights.  The  Austrians  re- 
ceived the  French  advance  with  a  hail  of  grape 
shot  and  musketry.  The  first  attack  of  Massdna'sg^jtig^j 
corps  was  repulsed.  The  whole  left  wing  of  the^^^"^^^ 
French  army  was  outflanked  at  Siissenbrunn  and 
pressed  back  toward  Wagram  and  the  Danube.  On 
the  French  right  wing,  on  the  other  hand,  Davoust 
outflanked  the  Austrians  at  Markgraf-Neufchatel. 
It  was  the  greatest  flanking  manoeuvre  of  all  the 
Napoleonic  campaigns.  The  Austrian  corps  of  Ro- 
senberg was  overthrown,  and  Montbrun's  squadrons 
of  chasseurs-^-cheval  were  sent  out  to  intercept  a 
possible  support  from  Archduke  John.  The  Aus- 
trian centre  swerved  over  to  the  rescue  of  Rosen- 
berg's left  wing.  In  the  meanwhile,  Mass^na's  men, 
fighting  stubbornly,  had  been  forced  back  as  far  as 
the  bridge  of  Aspern.  Several  officers  of  his  staff 
were  cut  down  at  his  side.  Massdna  himself  suf- 
fered   severely   from   a   fall    with    his    horse.      In 


840  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  July  1809 

desperation  be  despatched  his  aide-de-camp,  the 
Margrave  of  Baden,  to  the  Emperor.  The  young 
prince  galloped  to  the  very  centre  of  the  square 
of  guardsmen,  where  Napoleon  was  crouching  on 
the  ground  sticking  pins  into  his  map  of  battle. 
He  reported  that  Massena  could  no  longer  hold 
Ills  lines,  and  held  the  battle  for  lost.  Napoleon 
looked  up  and  said:  "What  time  is  it,  Berthier?" 
That  marshal,  resplendent  in  the  yellow  uniform  of 
ANapoie-   hjs  ducal  bodyguard  of  Neufchatel,   looked  at  his 

onic  effect 

watch  and  said:  "Twelve  o'clock,  sire."  "Tell  the 
Prince  of  E,ivoli,"  replied  Napoleon,  "that  the  bat- 
tle is  won.  It  is  noon  and  Archduke  John  has 
not  yet  come."  Dumfounded,  the  young  prince 
rode  off. 

Napoleon  gave  instant  orders  to  Beauharnais  to 
advance  his  strong  corps  on  Wagram  with  those 
of  Marmont  and  Grenier,  while  Oudinot  was  to 
advance  between  Wagram  and  Neufchatel.  The 
Emperor's  guards  swung  in  behind  the  central 
advance.  Napoleon  himself  mounted  his  white 
charger  and  galloped  over  to  the  left  wing,  fol- 
lowed by  all  the  reserve  cavalry  and  artillery. 
Berna-  ^^  arrived  in  time  to  encounter  the  regiments 
success'  of  Bernadotte's  shattered  divisions  retreating  from 
Aderklaa.  Massena  was  found  sitting  in  a  field 
wagon  desperately  holding  his  own.  Napoleon 
climbed  into  the  wagon  beside  him.  Here  he 
gave  orders  for  an  unprecedented  manoeuvre:  the 
m^iia^li'vie  j^^^ction  of  three  entire  divisions  under  Macdonald, 
Gerra  and  Wrede  with  Beauharnais's  army  in  one 
solid  column.     While  these  four  corps  were  welded 


1809  July  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  841 

into  one  irresistible  whole,  their  movements  were 
masked  bj  an  impetuous  cavalry  attack  led  by 
General  Lasalle.  He  had  not  ridden  a  hundred 
yards  before  he  was  killed  by  a  cannon  ball,  fii^  General 
squadron  wheeled  before  the  murderous  fire  of  thckmed"* 
Austrians  and  came  streaming  back  upon  the 
French  infantry.  Bessi^res  was  ordered  to  charge 
with  all  the  cavalry  reserves,  so  as  to  pierce  the 
Austrian  centre.  Riding  through  a  tempest  of 
grape  and  chain  shot,  Bessi^res  led  his  cuirassiers 
into  the  thick  of  the  fight.  Suddenly  he  was  seen 
to  pitch  headlong  to  the  ground,  where  he  lay  as 

Bessieres 

dead.  A  wail  went  up  from  the  Old  Guard.  The»°«^<*°^^ 
Emperor  averted  his  eyes,  and,  spurring  his  horse 
onward,  shouted:  "Let  us  go!  I  have  no  time  to 
weep."  Bessieres,  who  had  only  been  grazed  by 
a  passing  cannon  ball,  revived  and  clambered  into 
the  saddle  again.  The  Emperor  sent  Savary  after 
him.  When  next  he  saw  him,  he  said:  "The  ball 
which  struck  you  down,  my  dear  Bessieres,  drew 
tears  from  all  my  Guard.  It  ought  to  be  very  dear 
to  you."  By  this  time  Lauriston  had  brought  up 
the  reserve  artillery  and  had  unlimbered  his  bat- 
teries close  to  the  Austrians.  Macdonald  had  ad- 
vanced his  infantry  far  into  the  wedge  opened  by 
the  French  cavalry.  Over  three  miles  of  ground 
his  corps  advanced,  fighting  steadily.     Then  it  got  cionaws 

^  '       O  o  .7  &       famous 

wedged    under    a     murderous     cross-fire    from    the^'*^'^"®® 
Austrians,     His  men  were  mowed  down  by  whole 
companies.      Of   his   sixteen    thousand    soldiers   he 
lost    nearly    ten    thousand.       Napoleon,     watching 
Macdonald,  grew  anxious.      Several   times    he  ex- 


342  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  July  1809 

claimed,  "Brave  homme!"  The  death  gaps  in 
Macdonald's  corps  were  filled  by  men  from  the 
divisions  of  Wrede  and  Beauharnais.  At  last  the 
artillery  of  Davoust  was  seen  to  pass  the  tower  of 
Neufchatel,  where  one  wing  of  the  Austrian  army 
was  cut  off  by  Macdonald.  Napoleon's  face  lighted 
up.  "The  battle  is  gained!"  he  exclaimed.  The 
French  cavalry  was  ordered  to  wheel  around  and 
charge  into  the  right  wing  of  the  Austrians.  Under 
the  combined  shock  of  the  threefold  attack,  the 
Austrian  line  wavered  and  broke.  Beauharnais's 
storm        and  Marmont's  columns  stormed  Wagram.      Mas- 

Wagram 

s^na  burst  his  bonds  at  Aspern  and  threw  his  ad- 
versaries back  to  Siissenbrunn.  At  three  in  the 
afternoon.  Archduke  Charles  ordered  a  general  re- 
treat. Emperor  Francis,  watching  the  course  of 
the  battle  from  a  high  tower  in  Wolkersdorf, 
mounted  his  horse  and  sought  the  protection  of 
his   retreating   columns.      Not  till  then  did   Arch- 

Archduke  dukc  John's  vauguard  come  up  to  the  main  army. 

rives  too    His  corps  had  to  be  withdrawn   without  a  chance 

late  '■ 

to  strike  a  blow.  While  the  battle  was  still  raging 
in  the  distance,  Napoleon,  burning  with  fever,  had 
his  Mameluke  orderly  spread  a  bearskin  on  the 
ground  and  went  to  sleep  on  the  battlefield  under 
a  pyramid  of  bayonets.  The  Austrians  withdrew 
Napoleon    in    good    order.      The    rearguard    fought    off    the 

goes  to 

Sleep  French  pursuers,  and  their  retreat  was  covered  by 
a  well-directed  artillery  fire.  The  French  cavalry, 
though  ordered  to  harry  the  retreating  Austrians, 
for  some  unexplained  reason  did  so  but  languidly. 
During  the  pursuit,  Oudinot's  brother,  who  had  just 


1809 July  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  843 

been  promoted  to  a  generalship  by  Napoleon,  was 
shot  dead.  Mass^na,  Davoust,  Friant,  Mortier  and 
brave  Gudin  were  wounded.  Late  in  the  evening 
Napoleon  rode  over  the  battlefield.  Over  a  dis- 
tance of  nine  miles  the  ground  was  covered  with 
the  bodies  of  the  dead  and  wounded.  The  advance 
of  Macdonald's  corps  in  particular  could  be  traced 
by  the  heaps  of  his  slain.  Presently  the  Emperor 
met  Macdonald.  A  coldness  had  existed  betweea 
Bonaparte  and  the  Scotch  Jacobite  since  the  Em- 
peror's persecution  of  Moreau,  the  hero  of  Hohenlin- 
den.  After  that  Macdonald  refused  all  preferments 
from  Napoleon.  Now  the  Emperor  offered  his  hand 
and  said:  "Accept  it,  Macdonald!  Let  there  be  no 
more  ill  will  between  us.     From  this  day  we  musttiot.  of 

Macdonald 

be  friends.  I  will  send  you  as  a  pledge  your  mar- 
shal's staff,  which  you  have  so  gloriously  earned." 
Macdonald  gave  in.  Oudinot  and  Marmont  were 
likewise  made  marshals. 

It  proved  a  dearly  won  battle.  The  French  had 
27,000  killed  and  wounded,  while  the  Austrians 
lost  25,000.  Three  general  officers  fell  on  either 
side.  The  disparity  in  casualties  was  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  French  had  been  forced  to  advance  in 
compact  formation  under  a  long-sustained  artillery 
fire.  Both  sides  lost  heavily  in  prisoners,  guns  and 
standards.  Oudinot's  corps  alone,  according  to  that  of  wagram 
marshal's  report,  lost  8,946  men,  while  Gerot's  divis- 
ion suffered  so  severely  that  it  had  to  be  disbanded. 
Bernadotte's  beaten  corps  was  likewise  disbanded, 
and  their  commander  was  sent  back  to  France  in 
disgrace.      In   later  years,    Napoleon    told    Admi- 


844  A   HISTORY   OF   THE  Julyi8(» 

ral  Cockburn,  while  on  his  way  to  St.  Helena, 
that  it  was  the  biggest  battle  of  his  entire  career. 
After  the  battle,  the  Austrians  went  to  pieces. 
The  French  under  General  Marmont  pursued  so 
impetuously  that  by  July  10  they  suddenly  found 
themselves  in  the  midst  of  the  enemy  at  Znaim, 
twenty-six  leagues  from  Wagram.  There  was  no 
available  support.  Davoust  and  Massena  were  full 
two  marches  away.  Perceiving  his  danger,  Mar- 
preuica-     mout  showcd  a  bold  front  and  ordered  a  mad  attack 

ment  at 

Znaim  ^^  Zuaim,  as  if  confident  of  support.  The  Aus- 
trians contented  themselves  with  a  mere  repulse  of 
his  forlorn  attack  and  suffered  him  to  hold  his  own 
until  nightfall.  Thus  the  Archduke  lost  a  splendid 
chance  to  avenge  his  defeat  by  the  destruction  of 
one  of  Napoleon's  finest  divisions.  On  the  follow- 
ing day  Massdna  came  to  the  rescue.  Fighting  had 
recommenced  when  Prince  Lichtenstein  presented 
himself  with  powers  to  conclude  a  general  armistice. 
This  put  a  stop  to  hostilities. 

The  Emperor  of  Austria  at  first  refused  to  rat- 
ify the  armistice,  but  after  five  days  he  gave  in. 
Until  the  final  conclusion  of  peace  the  French  oc- 

^fznata^  cupied  Vienna,  and  Napoleon  established  himself 
at  Schoenbrunn.  For  fifteen  long  days  the  am- 
bulances rattled  through  the  streets  of  Vienna. 
Twenty-three  hospitals  had  to  attend  to  them. 
V^ithout  waiting  for  further  pourparlers,  Napoleon 
called  for  a  war  indemnity  of  237,860,000  francs. 

Loss  of  On  the  day  that  the  armistice  went  into  effect,  the 

coiouies  English  seized  the  French  colony  of  San  Domingo 
with  the  help  of  the  Spanish  colonists.   Martinique, 


1809  July  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  o45 

and  Senegal  in  Africa,  also  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  English.  The  time  had  come  for  the  British  to 
strike  nearer  home,  in  the  Peninsula,  Sir  Arthur 
Wellesley,  after  his  return  from  tne  pursuit  of  Mar- 
shal Soult,  had  remained  long  inactive  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  Lisbon.  At  last  a  plan  for  combined  action 
was  agreed  upon  between  him  and  the  Spanish  gen- 
erals, particularly  Don  Cuesta.  Both  began  from 
different  points  to  march  on  Madrid.  A  junction 
of  their  armies  was  effected  on  July  20.  The  main 
body  marched  toward  Ollala,  where  the  French  were 
encamped  under  Marshal  Victor.      Within  a  week  Aiiies  ad- 

m         vance  oq 

the  advance  skirmishers  were  engaged  near  Tor-  Madrid 
rijos.  Both  sides  prepared  for  a  general  battle. 
General  Wellesley,  by  virtue  of  his  greater  aptitude, 
took  command.  He  had  19,000  British  and  Bruns- 
wickers  with  thirty  guns.  Cuesta  had  33,000  Span- 
iards with  seventy  guns.  Against  this  combined 
army  the  French  could  oppose  not  quite  50,000 
veterans  with  eighty  guns. 

The  position  taken  up  by  Wellesley's  troops  at 
Talavera  extended  over  two  miles.  The  right 
wing  of  the  allied  army  was  held  by  Cuesta's 
Spaniards,  immediately  in  front  of  Talavera  down 
to  the  Tagus.  The  ground  was  very  rough  and  Battle  of 
covered  with  olive  trees.  On  July  27,  the  French 
attacked  and  drove  General  Mackenzie's  vanguard 
back  on  the  allies.  The  attack  was  covered  by 
heavy  artillery  fire.  At  night  the  French  were 
driven  back  in  a  bayonet  charge,  and  were  likewise 
repulsed  on  their  right  wing.  A  famous  cavalry 
charge  was  made  by  the  Twenty-third  itight  Dra- 


346  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  July  i809 

goons  over  a  sunken    chasm,  in    which  two-thirds 

went  down  before  reaching   the  enemy.     The  rest 

astrous      Were  killed  off  by  Victor's  Polish  Lancers.     The 

cavalrj 

charge  German  hussars,  only,  escaped.  On  the  28th, 
the  British  attacked  in  force,  and  the  French 
gave  way  all  along  the  line.  Their  losses  were 
twenty  cannon  and  10,000  in  casualties.  Among 
them  were  General  Lapisse  and  a  brigadier-general. 
The  British  lost  nearly  6,000  men.  Among  their 
killed  were  Generals  Mackenzie,  Langworth  and 
Becket.  The  Spanish  troops,  having  been  but 
partially  engaged,  lost  only  1,200.  The  victory 
was  not  completed,  owing  to  the  oppressive  heat 
and  the  great  fatigue  of  the  British  soldiers,  who 
had  covered  sixty-two  miles  in  twenty-four  hours. 
The  Spaniards,  when  called  upon  to  press  the 
defeat   home,  did   not   respond.     For   the  victories 

weiiiDKtnn  of  Oporto  and  Talavera,  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley  was 
raised  to  the  peerage  with  the  title  Baron  Douro 
of  Wellesley  and  Viscount  Wellington  of  Talavera. 
The  title  was  chosen  by  his  brother  William,  then 
in  the  Ministry,  to  minimize  the  change  of  name. 
Napoleon,  when  he  heard  of  Victor's  defeat  at  Tala- 
vera, remarked:  "II  parait  que  c'est  un  homme, 
ce  Wellesley." 

The  British  joy  of  victory  was  of  short  duration. 
In  the  first  days  of  August,  word  was  received  that 
Soult,  Ney,  and  Mortier,  having  joined  forces,  were 
advancing  through  Kstremadura  to  fail  on  the  rear 
of  the  British.  In  Wellington's  own  words  "the 
allied  army  could  only  be  saved  by  great  celerity  of 
movement."    Wellington  and  Cuesta  separated  their 


1809  Augr.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  847 

forces  so  as  to  present  a  front  either  way.  By 
August  2,  the  French,  30,000  strong,  had  pushed 
in  between  the  British  and  the  bridge  of  Almarez.  the'^uies 
The  allies  moved  off  in  haste.  The  British  crossed 
the  Tagus  on  August  4,  at  Arzo  Bispo,  and  re- 
treated toward  Deleytosa  and  Badajos.  The  Span- 
iards under  Cuesta  followed  in  the  same  direction, 
leaving  all  the  British  wounded  behind.     This  cir- 

°  British 

cumstance,    in   connection   with    the   fact   that   theT""^®'^^ 

'  abandoned 

British  retreated  in  advance  of  the  Spaniards,  be- 
came the  subject  of  caustic  comment.  The  "Moni- 
teur"  in  Paris  said:  "The  post  of  honor  is  that 
which  is  nearest  the  enemy,  but  Lord  Wellington, 
having  it  in  his  option  to  give  the  post  of  honor  either 
to  the  English  or  to  those  Spaniards  of  whom  he 
speaks  so  ill,  determined  in  favor  of  the  Span- 
ish troops."  In  England,  a  parliamentary  vote  of 
thanks  to  Lord  Wellington  only  went  through  after 
much  opposition.  The  retreat  of  the  allied  army 
was  pressed  so  hard  by  the  French  that  the  English 
were  forced  far  up  the  course  of  the  Tagus.  The 
Spaniards,    thus   isolated,   were   surprised   at   Arzo 

Spanish 

Bispo  and  lost  all   their  artillery.     Cuesta  was  re- 'defeats  at 

^  ^  Arzo  Bispo, 

placed  by  General  Eguia  as  generalissimo.  At  the  and  o'caaa 
same  time,  a  strong  Spanish  army  under  General 
Venegas  was  routed  by  General  Sebastiani  at  Al- 
mancid  in  Old  Castile.  Shortly  afterward  the  same 
forces  under  General  Ariezaga  were  routed  again  at 
Ocana  on  the  side  of  New  Castile.  The  Spaniards 
lost  4,000  killed  and  wounded  with  10,000  prison- 
ers. The  defeat  of  Ocana  was  quickly  followed  by 
the  reduction  of  Cordova  and  Seville.     In  Catalonia 


348  A    HISTORY    OF    THK  Summer  1809 

the  event  of  the  year  was  the  third  heroic  siege  sus- 
tained by  the  little  town  of  Gerona  with  a  garrison 
of  scarcely  2,800  men.  The  siege  lasted  from  mid- 
summer to  the  end  of  the  year.  As  during  the 
preceding  sieges,  priests,  monks  and  women  fought 
on  the  ramparts  with  the  peasants  and  soldiers.  To 
utter  the  word  capitulation  meant  death.      While 

Third  sic'G 

ofGerona  the  garrisou  defended  itself  behind  its  wretched 
earthworks,  General  Blake  with  a  force  of  Spanish 
regulars  made  numerous  diversions  from  without. 
The  frequent  repulses  of  the  French  so  displeased 
Napoleon  that  St.  Cyr  and  Verdier,  the  two 
commanding  generals,  were  recalled,  and  Marshal 
Augereau  appointed  in  their  place.  Not  until 
Alvarez,  the  Spanish  commander,  went  mad  under 
the  long  strain,  did  the  Geronese  give  in.  Finally 
they  surrendered  with  all  the  honors  of  war.  Al- 
varez died  in  an  ambulance  while  on  the  way  to 
France.  Some  idea  of  the  desultory  character  of 
the  military  operations  in  the  Peninsula  this  year 
may  be  gathered  from  this  estimate  of  the  situation, 
given  by  Lord  Wellington  to  his  brother  in  1809: 
He  calculated  the  disposable  forces  of  the  French 
in  Spain  as  122,000  men,  well  provided  with  cav- 
alry and  artillery,   without  including  the  troops  in 

Forces 

luthe        Pampeluna,  Barcelona  and  other  garrisons.     There 

Peninsula  ^  '  '^ 

was  the  Catalonian  corps  under  St.  Cyr  and  Suchet 
amounting  to  82,000  men.  The  other  90,000  were 
distributed  in  Castile  and  Estremadura.  Of  the 
aggregate  forces,  70,000  men  were  actually  in  the 
field,  namely  the  divisions  of  Victor,  Soult,  Ney, 
Mortier  and  Sebastiani.     The  rest  were  distributed 


1809  Summer  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  34S 

in  Madrid,  the  Escurial,  Avila,  Valladolid,  Toledo 
and  other  convenient  centres.  To  these  forces  the 
Spaniards  could  only  oppose  two  corps  under 
Venegas  and  Eguia.  Blake,  in  Catalonia,  had  about 
6,000  men.  The  Marquis  of  Eomana  had  15,000, 
but  having  neither  artillery  nor  cavalry,  he  had  to 
keep  to  the  mountains  of  Gallicia.  There  was  also 
a  stationary  Spanish  garrison  of  9,000  at  Ciudad 
Eodrigo.  The  English  numbered  from  20,000  to 
25,000  in  Portugal.  Toward  the  end  of  the  year 
all  the  Spanish  fortresses  had  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  French  and  most  of  the  patriot 
armies  had  been  practically  dispersed. 

In  other  quarters,  British  military  operations  were 
carried  on  against  Napoleon.  In  early  summer,  Sir 
John  Stewart,  who  commanded  the  British  army  in 
Sicily,  embarked  with  15,000  troops  to  capture 
Naples  and  Calabria.  The  expedition  was  joined  British  at- 
by  a  body  of  Sicilian  troops.  On  June  6,  theNa^ies^" 
French  garrisons  of  Procida  and  Ischia  surren- 
dered to  the  British.  By  this  stroke  1,500  regu- 
lar troops,  one  hundred  guns  and  forty  gunboats 
fell  into  British  hands.  After  considerable  fighting 
for  the  possession  of  the  castle  of  Scylla,  which  was 
taken  and  retaken  several  times,  the  British  were 
forced  to  abandon  the  slight  footing  they  had 
obtained. 

Another  British  expedition  of  a  more  formi- 
dable nature  was  intended  to  create  a  diversion 
in  favor  of  Austria  by  invading  Holland.     Toward  Simci- 

taneous 

the  end  of  July,  troops  were  collected  to  the  num- ^'^«™^p^"» 
ber  of  40,000,  with  150  siege  guns,  supported  by 


350  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  Aug.  1 809 

forty  ships  of  the  line,  thirty-six  frigates  and  a  fleet 
of  gunboats  and  transports.  The  whole  expedition 
numbered  about  100,000  sailors  and  soldiers.  The 
fleet  was  commanded  by  Sir  Eichard  Strachan, 
while  the  Earl  of  Chatham  led  the  land  forces. 
The  departure  of  the  expedition  at  the  end  of 
_       July  was  a   great   event.      On   the   arrival    of   the 

The  Wal-  -^  ° 

expedition  troops  at  Walchercu  and  South  Beveland,  it  was 
found  that  the  French  had  evacuated  their  position, 
to  concentrate  at  Antwerp.  The  French  squadron 
likewise  took  refuge  in  the  harbor  of  Antwerp. 
Resistance  was  encountered  only  at  Flushing.  By 
the  middle  of  August,  Flushing  was  bombarded  for 
thirty-six  hours.  The  next  day  General  Mounet 
surrendered  with  his  garrison  of  6,000  men.  Na- 
poleon was  incensed  at  the  news,  and  had  Mounet 
court-martialled  and  condemned  to  death  while  still 
a  prisoner  in  British  hands.  Instead  of  pushing 
straight  on  to  Antwerp,  the  British  lay  a  long  time 
idle  at  Flushing.     They  were  quartered  in  a  marshy 

Malaria  at  region,  which  was  so  notoriously  unhealthy  that 
"^  '°°  Napoleon  had  forbidden  any  French  troops  to  be 
garrisoned  there.  Thousands  of  the  soldiers  fell 
ill  with  malignant  fever.  All  idea  of  pushing 
up  the  Scheldt  to  destroy  the  arsenal  and  dock- 
yards of  the  French  at  Antwerp  and  Terneuse  was 
abandoned.  At  last,  by  the  middle  of  September, 
Lord  Chatham  returned  to  England  with  the  greater 
portion  of  the  troops.     Only  the  island  of  Walche- 

returiS™  Ten  was  retained  by  a  British  force  to  maintain  a 
blockade    on    the    Scheldt. 

The    ignominious    failure    of     this    expeditioa 


1809  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  351 

stirred  up  bad  blood  in  England.  The  Ministry 
was  rent  by  factions.  Percival,  Castlereagli  and 
Canning  were  at  cross-purposes.  For  some  time 
the  Duke  of  Portland  and  Castlereagh  had  been  at 
odds — ever  since  Canning  had  privately  stipulated 
that  he  would  not  remain  in  the  Cabinet  unless 
Castlereagh  were  removed  from  the  War  Office.  The 
unfortunate  Walcheren  expedition,  a  pet  project  of 
Castlereagh,  brought  matters  to  a  head.  The  Mar- 
quis of  Wellesley  had  wished  the  troops  to  be  sent 
to  Portugal,  where  his  brother  was  fighting.  Can- 
ning supported  him  in  this,  but  said  nothing  to 
Castlereagh.  When  Castlereagh  was  finally  brought 
to  resign,  and  Wellesley  was  selected  for  his  place, 
Castlereagh  charged  Canning  with  double  dealing. 
On  September  22,  they  fought  a  duel  on  Putney 
Heath.  Canning  was  shot  in  the  thigh.  The  Dukcduei^with' 
of  Portland  resigned  from  the  Ministry,  and  a  fewrea^h 
days  afterward  he  died.  Thus  ended  the  first  part 
of  Canning's  ministerial  career.  Walter  Scott,  who 
had    interested    Canning    in    the   foundinor    of    the 

°  °  "Quarterly 

"Quarterly  Review,"  advised  him  to  take  his  own ^j^^^|.®^" 
ground  in  Parliament  and  hoist  his  own  standard. 
This  Canning  did. 

Canning's  conduct  of  the  Foreign  Office  had  given 
much  umbrage.  This  was  especially  true  of  America. 
All  the  rejoicing  over  the  termination  of  the  hurtful 
embargo  was  turned  to  wormwood  when  Canning 
disavowed  the  promises  and  negotiations  entered 
into   by   his  Minister,    Erskine.      Upon   Erskine's  American 

•^  ^  policy 

remonstrances  Canning  wrote:  "I  must  signify  to 
you  the  displeasure  which  his  Majesty  feels  that 


352  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Summer  1S09 

any  Minister  of  his  Majesty  should  have  shown 
himself  so  far  insensible  of  what  is  due  to  the 
dignity  of  his  sovereign  as  to  have  consented  to  re- 
ceive and  transmit  a  note  in  which  such  expressions 
were  contained."  To  others,  Canning  justified  his 
Frskine  re- repudiation  of  the  compact  with  America  by  the 

pudiated 

single  reason  that  the  United  States  government 
could  not  be  trusted  long  enough  to  prove  its  good 
faith.  For  Erskine's  place,  Canning  selected  Jack- 
son, whose  conduct  at  Copenhagen  had  made  him 
notorious.  The  London  "Morning  Chronicle"  pub- 
lished this  comment:  "The  appointment  has  excited 
general  surprise  owing  to  the  character  of  the  indi- 
vidual." Pinckney,  from  the  American  Legation  in 
London,  sent  this  warning  to  President  Madison: 
"It  is  rather  a  prevailing  notion  here  that  this 
gentleman's  conduct  will  not  and  cannot  be  what 
we  wish."  Jackson  himself  complained  that  Can- 
doubtf*i?i'^  ning  had  sent  him  on  an  errand  which  he  knew  to 
mission  ^g  impossible  to  perform.  On  July  1,  Jackson 
received  his  instructions.  Their  wording  showed 
them  to  be  conceived  in  the  spirit  of  arrogant  in- 
tolerance, which  did  so  much  to  arouse  the  United 
States  to  war  with  Great  Britain.  Erskine's  com- 
pact was  repudiated  with  a  charge  of  bad  faith 
against  President  Madison,  founded  on  the  "pub- 
licity so  unwarrantably  given  by  the  American 
government." 

The  news  of  Canning's  disavowal  did  not  reach 
America   until   July  21,   after  three  months  of   un- 


Conster- 
nation ir 
America 

general   bewilderment.     "The  late  conduct  of   the 


nation  in     restricted  trade  with  England.     The  first  effect  was 


1809  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  853 

British  Ministry,"  commented  the  "National  Intel- 
ligencer" of  July  26,  "has  capped  the  climax  of 
atrocity  toward  this  country."  President  Madison 
was  away  from  Washington  on  his  Virginia  planta- 
tion. Gallatin,  in  temporary  charge  of  affairs,  real- 
ized at  once  that  a  crisis  was  at  hand  and  advised 
the  President  to  return.  "I  will  only  observe,"  he 
wrote  in  his  letter,  "that  we  are  not  so  well  pre- 
pared for  resistance  as  we  were  a  year  aaro.  .  .  .  Premo- 
We  have  wasted  our  resources  without  any  national  ^^"^ 
utility,  and,  our  treasury  being  exhausted,  we  must 
now  prepare  for  resistance  with  considerable  and 
therefore  unpopular  loans."  Madison  wrote  to  Jef- 
ferson: "I  find  myself  under  a  mortifying  necessity 
of  setting  out  for  Washington  to-morrow  (August  4). 
The  intricate  state  of  our  affair  with  England,  pro- 
duced by  the  mixture  of  fraud  and  folly  in  her  con- 
duct, .  .  .  requires  that  I  should  join  my  Cabinet." 
Upon  his  arrival  in  Washington,  without  waiting 
for  the  authorization  of  Congress,  Madison  issued 
a  proclamation,  reviving  the  non-intercourse  act 
against  Great  Britain.  Madison  saw  no  reason 
why  he  should  remain  in  Washington  to  receive 
the  British  Minister  upon  his  arrival,  the  more  so 
since  he  agreed  with  Gallatin  that  Jackson's  dis- 
claimer was  likely  to  be  neither  operative  nor  agree- 
able.    When  the  President  returned  at  last,  in  early 

Madison 

autumn,  he  received  the  British  Minister  in  frock- ^I^^^J^^ 
coat,   "as  one   gentleman   another,   in   strong   con- 
trast,"   wrote   Jackson,   "to   the   audiences  I  have 
had    with    most    of    the    sovereigns    of    Europe." 
When  Jackson   failed   to   make  any  oral   proposi- 


o54  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Autumn  1800 

tions  to  the  Secretary  of  State, the  President  requested 
d^k.ma^[c  him  to  Submit  proposals  in  writing.  Jackson  wrote  a 
letter  of  remonstrance,  beginning  with  the  assertion, 
"there  does  not  exist,  in  the  annals  of  diplomacy,  a 
precedent  for  stopping  verbal  communication  within 
so  few  days  after  the  delivery  of  credentials." 

Madison  replied  in  extenso,  reminding  him  at  the 
outset  that  only  in  the  previous  year  Canning  had 
put  an  end  to  oral  communications  after  two  inter- 
views with  Pinckney  on  the  subject  now  under 
consideration.  The  rest  of  the  letter  drove  the 
awkward  position  of  the  British  Minister  home  to 
him.  Jackson  wrote  to  Canning :»" Madison  is  now 
as  obstinate  as  a  mule.  Until  he  gets  the  absolute 
surrender  of  the  Orders  in  Council,  he  will  not  even 
accept  satisfaction  for  the  a£fair  of  the  'Chesapeake,' 
which  has  now  for  the  third  time  been  offered  to 
him  in  vain."  A  few  days  after  this,  Jackson  re- 
ceived a  third  note,  requesting  him  to  show  his  full 
powers,  as  an  indispensable  preliminary  to  further 
negotiations.  In  reply  to  Jackson's  insinuation 
that  the  American  government  had  connived  with 
Erskine,  when  the  latter  exceeded  his  instructions, 
Madison  wrote  sternly:  "The  view  which  you  have 
presented  on  the  subject  makes  it  my  duty  to  ap- 
c^edTo  prise  you  that  such  insinuations  are  inadmissible 
in  the  intercourse  of  a  foreign  Minister  with  a  gov- 
ernment that  understands  what  it  owes  to  itself." 
This  communication  placed  Jackson  in  a  difficult 
position.  Unable  to  defend  himself  against  the 
charge,  he  asserted  that  it  was  based  on  fact. 
The  President's  reply  to  this  note  came  on  No- 


accxjunt 


1809  Autumn  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  355 

vember  8.  It  was  short  and  to  the  point:  "Sir — 
Finding  that,  in  your  reply  of  the  4th  inst.,  you 
have  used  a  lansruage  which  cannot  be  understood 

The  British 

but  as  reiterating  and  even  aggravating  the  same  ^".^"y/i's- 
gross  insinuations,  it  only  remains  for  me,  in  order 
to  preclude  opportunities  which  are  thus  abused,  to 
inform   you  that    no   further   communications   will 
be  received  from  you." 

On  Napoleon's  foreign  policy,  the  effects  of  Amer- 
ica's dealings  with  England  were  various.  Napo- 
leon was  in  Vienna,  preparing  for  the  battle  of 
Wagram,  when  the  news  reached  him  that  America 
and  England  had  settled  their  commercial  disputes. 
Fearful  of  forcing  the  United  States  into  the  coalition  Napoieon'a 
against  France,  he  sent  to  Champigny  the  draught  poTicy^*'* 
of  a  new  commercial  decree.  It  declared  that  since 
the  United  States,  by  their  firm  resistance  to  the 
arbitrary  measures  of  England,  were  no  longer 
obliged  to  pay  imports  to  the  British  government, 
the  Milan  decree  of  December  17,  1807,  should  not 
longer  be  applied  to  the  United  States,  and  neutral 
commerce  with  America  should  be  restored.  Be- 
fore this  change  of  policy  could  be  effected,  the 
battle  of  "Wagram  was  won.  At  the  same  time, 
Canning  repudiated  the  new  American  arrange- 
ment, and  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain 
were  once  more  at  odds.  These  events  were  fol- 
lowed by  a  corresponding  change  in  the  tone  of  the 
French  Emperor.  On  August  22,  Champigny  in- tone ^^°' 
formed  the  American  Minister  that  France  would 
not  revoke  her  retaliatory  decrees  on  commerce 
until  England   should  raise  her  blockades. 


Sofi  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Autumn  1809 

While  residing  at  Schoenbrunn,  Napoleon  was  be- 
set with  other  problems  beyond  the  remote  vexation 
of  commercial  non-intercourse  with  America.  The 
peace  negotiations  with  Austria  were  dragging,  and 
in  the  meanwhile  the  Tyrolese  insurgents  refused 
to  be  pacified.     The  rebellion,  secretly  fomented  by 

The  Tyrol  '^  ^  j  .1 

uupacified  t^e  Austrian  government  throughout  the  armistice, 
had  to  be  put  down  with  fire  and  sword.  A  thou- 
sand Saxons  were  massacred  in  the  valley  of  the 
Eisach,  and  the  Bavarians  lost  1,200  men  in  the 
Pusterthal.  The  peasant  leaders  caught  were  shot. 
Speckbacher  escaped  to  Vienna  after  great  suffer- 
ing. Andreas  Hofer,  the  soul  of  the  Tyrolese  in- 
surrection, was  betrayed  by  an  unfrocked  priest. 
He  was  dragged  off  to  Mantua  to  be  tried  by  drum- 
head court-martial.  It  was  at  this  time  that  Staaps, 
a  young  German  student  from  Erfurt,  tried  to  kill 
Napoleon.  He  approached  the  Emperor,  during  a 
military  review  at  Schoenbrunn,  with  a  paper  in  his 
hand;  but  Greneral  Eapp  stopped  him,  and  finding 
his  answers  suspicious,  had  him  arrested.  On  hie 
person   was    found   a   large   kitchen   knife.     Later, 

Attempted  ^  °  ' 

SitH^nof  Napoleon  had  Staaps  called  into  the  drawing-room, 
apoieoD  ^^Qj.g  jjQ  ^^g  receiving  his  marshals.  The  young 
man  declared  that  he  wished  to  free  Germany  in 
freeing  Europe.  He  added  that  he  was  neithei 
ill  nor  mad.  In  the  face  of  the  Emperor,  Staapg 
expressed  regret  that  he  had  not  succeeded  in  hig 
attempt.  "But,"  said  Napoleon,  "you  have  a  fam- 
ily whose  ruin  you  will  cause.  You  will  fill  with 
despair  the  heart  of  the  young  girl  who  loves  you. 
If  1  grant  you  your  life,  will  you  be  grateful  ?" — "J 


J809Oct.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  367 

will  kill  you  none  the  less,"  said  Staaps.    Napoleon 
had  him  removed  in  the  hope  that  the  young  man 
would  express  repentance.     Staaps  remained  three 
days  without  eating;  then  he  walked  to  the  place  of  „  ^    ..^ 
his  execution,  crying:  "Long  live  Germany!    Death  °^^^*^p^ 
to  the  tyrant!" 

Peace  between  France  and  Austria  was  at  last 
concluded  on  October  14,  1809,  a  few  days  after 
Napoleon  had  called  for  a  new  levy  of  troops  in 
France.  Count  Stadion  resigned  from  the  Minis- 
try, and  Metternich  took  his  place.  The  treaty  of 
Vienna,  the  last  which  Napoleon  signed  as  a  con- 
queror, took    from    the    Austrian    Empire    60,000  Peace  coa. 

eluded  at 

square  miles  of  territory  and  nearly  five  million  Vienna 
inhabitants.  Austria,  which  at  the  beginning  of 
the  Napoleonic  wars  possessed  territory  from  the 
Danube  to  the  Rhine,  with  the  greater  part  of  Italy, 
now  found  herself  cut  off  from  Grermany  and  from 
the  sea.  The  dominion  of  Napoleon  extended  with- 
out a  break  from  the  North  Sea  to  the  borders  of 
Turkey.  Bavaria  and  Saxony  were  increased  at 
the  expense  of  their  once  powerful  neighbor.  Salz- 
burg a^ad  upper  Austria,  in  addition  to  the  Tyrol, 
were  ceded  to  Bavaria.  Austrian  Poland  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  Grandduchy  of  Warsaw,  under  the 
control  of  the  King  of  Saxony.  This  was  a  direct 
slight  to  the  Czar,  intended  as  a  punishment  for 
Russia's  lukewarm  conduct  as  an  ally.  Part  of 
Carinthia,  and  the  whole  of  the  country  lying  be- 
tween the  Adriatic  and  the  Save,  as  far  as  Bosnia,  f*g^°^*** 
were  annexed  to  the  French  Empire  as  the  Illyrian*'™^""® 
provinces.     Napoleon  appeared   to   have   gathered 


35^  A   HISTORY   OF   THE  Oct  jiJ09 

richer  spoils  than  ever  before,  but  in  truth  his  posi- 
tion had  grown  worse  rather  than  better.  Tbe  con- 
tinued revolts  in  Spain  and  the  Tyrol  held  out  a 
hope  to  northern  Europe,  while  the  estrangement 
with  Russia  involved  new  dangers  from  that  quarter. 
The  maritime  war  with  England,  with  the  result- 
ing stoppage  of  foreign  trade  in  France  and  Hol- 
land, had  stricken  a  hidden  wound  which  weakened 
the  internal  resources  of  the  French  Empire.  Yet 
Napoleon  was  confident  of  ultimate  victory.  At 
Amoricaii  Vienna,  he  wrote  another  decree  revoking  his  con- 
vleuua  ciliatory  attitude  toward  American  trade.  It  called 
for  confiscation  of  American  merchandise,  in  retali- 
ation for  penalties  imposed  on  French  ships  for  vio- 
lating the  American  embargo.  Furthermore,  Na- 
poleon declared  that  American  merchandise  was 
English  property  in  disguise,  and  should  be  treated 
as  such.  Peace  was  finally  concluded  between 
France  and  Denmark  as  well  as  Sweden.  In  return 
for  a  promise  to  close  all  Swedish  harbors  against 
English  ships,  Pomerania  was  returned  to  Sweden. 
In  the  treaty  between  Sweden  and  Russia,  signed  at 

Sweden 

muues  Fredericshamm,  on  September  17,  Sweden  had  to 
cede  Finland,  the  archipelago  of  Aland  and  a  part 
of  Swedish  Bothnia.  So  it  came  that  the  great 
national  singer  of  Finland,  John  Ludvig  Runeberg, 
who  was  to  become  the  greatest  poet  that  ever 
wrote  in  the  Swedish  language,  was  born  a  Russian 
subject. 

Immediately  after  signing  peace.  Napoleon  left 
Schoenbrunn.  As  a  parting  measure,  he  gave  or- 
ders to  raze  the  Vienna  fortifications  to  the  ground. 


peace 


1808  Nov.  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  859 

After  a  short  visit  to  the  Bavarian  court  at  Nymph- 
enburg,  he  arrived  at  Fontainebleau,  on  October  J^tu?Q8°to 
29,  without  having  been  announced.  Empress 
Josephine  was  not  there  to  receive  him.  Napoleon 
made  this  a  pretext  for  a  violent  scene.  It  served 
to  foreshadow  the  divorce  which  had  long  been 
arranged  by  Fouche.  At  the  imperial  palace,  the 
doors  were  closed  between  the  apartments  of  Na- 
poleon and  those  of  Josephine.  Men^val,  who 
witnessed  these  scenes,  wrote  in  his  memoirs: 

"So  cruelly  was  Josephine  troubled  that  she  was 
constantly  appealing  to  me.  My  part  became  em- 
barrassing, and,  in  order  to  escape  from  the  unhap- 
py princess  and  her  questions,  I  had  to  avoid  her. 
"When  by  hazard  she  was  able  to  keep  the  Emperor 
with  her  for  a  moment,  she  did  not  dare  to  touch  on 
this  question  for  fear  that  the  fatal  sentence  should 
fall  from  his  lips.  ...  At  last  the  Emperor  was  ^  ^^ 
unable  to  bear  it  any  longer,  and  one  evening,  after ^^eak^with 
the  most  silent  and  sorrowful  of  meals,  he  broke 
the  ice.  .  .  .  From  that  day,  Josephine  was  seen 
no  more  at  court." 

It  was  on  December  16  that  a  senatus  consuUum 
announced  the  dissolution  of  the  marriage  of  Na- 
poleon Bonaparte  with  Josephine  Tascher  de  la 
Pagerie,  mother  of  Prince  Eugene  Beauharnais, 
Viceroy  of  Italy,  etc.     The  act  read  as  follows: 

"Article  I. — The  marriage  contracted  between 
Emperor  Napoleon  and  Empress  Josephine  is  dis- 
solved. 

"Article  II. — Empress  Josephine  will  retain  the  Napoleon's 

•   I  1  11-  1    T-i  divorce 

titles  and  rank  oi  a  crowned  Empress. 

"Article  III. — All  arrangements  which  may  be 
made  by  the  Emperor  in  favor  of  Empress  Joseph- 


860 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


Dec.  1809 


Joseph- 
ine's 
farewell 


Kio(>  and 
Quceo  of 
Pr'jssia 
ririurn  to 
Berlin 


ine,  on  the  funds  of  the  civil  list,  must  be  observed 
by  his  successors." 

After  the  decree  was  entered,  Napoleon  gave 
orders  to  conduct  Josephine  to  Malmaison,  and 
went  to  say  farewell.  M^neval,  who  was  present, 
thus  describes  the  scene:  "When  it  was  announced 
that  the  carriages  were  ready,  Napoleon  took  his 
hat  and  said,  'Meneval,  come  with  mel'  I  fol- 
lowed him  up  the  little  winding  staircase  from  his 
study  to  the  Empress's  apartments.  Josephine  was 
alone,  and  appeared  wrapped  in  the  most  painful 
reflection.  The  noise  we  made  in  entering  aroused 
her.  Springing  up,  she  threw  herself  on  the  Em- 
peror's neck,  sobbing  and  crying.  He  pressed  her 
to  his  bosom,  kissing  her  again  and  again;  but  in 
the  excess  of  her  emotion  she  had  fainted." 

Napoleon  left  Josephine  with  Men^val,  whe 
finally  followed  alone.  That  gentleman,  as  he 
put  it,  "felt  very  miserable,  and  could  not  help 
deploring  that  the  rigorous  exactions  of  politics 
should  violently  break  the  bonds  of  an  affection 
which  had  stood  the  test  of  time,  to  impose  another 
union  full  of  uncertainty." 

Tlie  rest  of  the  month,  until  the  close  of  the  year, 
was  spent  by  Napoleon  in  solitude,  at  Trianon.  By 
an  odd  coincidence,  it  was  at  this  same  time  that  the 
King  of  Prussia  and  Queen  Louise  made  their  joy- 
ful entry  into  tiie  old  royal  palace  at  Berlin,  after 
an  absence  ot  three  years. 


1810  Jan.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  861 


1810 

NAPOLEON  had  reached  a  point  in  his  ca- 
reer when  he  was  more  bent  on  holding 
fast  what  he  had  already  acquired  than 
on  making  new  conquests.  The  war  with  Eng- 
land, in  his  mind,  had  resolved  itself  into  a  test 
of  endurance.  He  was  satisfied,  therefore,  to  leave 
the  active  prosecution  of  tlje  war  in  Spain  to  bia 
marshals,  while  he  trusted  to  the  effects  of  his  cou- 
tinental  blockade  to  bring  England  to  time.  The 
retroactive  effect  of  commercial  stagnation  on  the 
Continent  itself  was  not  yet  realized  by  Napoleon. 
Yet  the  French  peasants  had  to  extract  sugar  from 
beet  root,  and  substituted  chicory  for  coffee,  luofconti- 
Germany  and  the  Netherlands,  smokers  had  to  blockade 
forego  their  tobacco  and  took  to  canaster.  But  for 
a  flourishing  smuggling  trade,  Holland  would  have 
been  ruined.  In  Scandinavia,  likewise,  the  inclu- 
sion of  Sweden  and  Denmark  in  the  continental 
union  made  smugglers  out  of  the  hardy  seamen  of 
the  North.  In  Russia,  where  there  was  no  such 
outlet,  the  ruin  of  trade  was  complete,  and  pnblic  pj^^^^jj^ 
finances  went  from  bad  to  worse.  All  this  was  lostjiu^i'a 
on  Napoleon.  For  the  present  he  was  bent  on  se- 
curing his  empire  as  a  dynasty  by  a  personal  alli- 
ance with  one  of   the   oldest  reigning   families  in 

XlXth  Century— Vol.  1—16 


362  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Jan.  1810 

Europe.     Having  failed  in  one  of  his  matrimonial 

advances  on  the  side  of  Kussia,  he  turned  to  Aus- 

mtt^i-^ °°  *  tria.      The   fact   that    marriage   with   the   Corsican 

monial 

advances  usurper  could  not  even  be  classed  as  a  morganatic 
alliance,  for  a  princess  of  the  ancient  House  of 
Hapsburg,  was  not  permitted  to  interfere  with  the 
plans  of  so  calculating  a  Prime  Minister  as  Prince 
Metternich.  Before  Napoleon  divorced  Josephine, 
Prince  Metternich  had  already  been  sounded  on 
the  subject  by  Napoleon's  emissary,  Alexandre 
Laborde.  Metternich  wrote  to  Prince  Schwarzen- 
berg,  the  Austrian  Ambassador  in  Paris:  "His 
Majesty,  the  Emperor  [Francis],  to  whom  nothing 
is  repugnant  which  can  contribute  to  assure  the  well- 
being  and  tranquillity  of  the  state,  far  from  reject- 
ing  this  idea,  authorizes  you,  Sir,  to  follow  it  up, 

to  Austria  g^^^^  ^q  refusc  no  overtures  which  may  be  made  on 
the  subject.  .  .  .  You  will  also  try  to  determine, 
so  far  as  possible,  the  advantages  that  France  will 
ofier  to  Austria  in  case  of  the  conclusion  of  a  family 
alliance." 

On  New  Year's  day  Princess  Metternich,  who  had 
remained  in  Paris,  was  presented  to  Napoleon  at  the 
Tuileries.  The  next  day  the  Princess  was  bidden 
to  Malmaison  to  meet  the  ex-Empress.  Josephine 
herself  broached  the  subject  of  the  projected  mar- 
riage of  Napoleon  to  Marie-Louise.  She  said:  "It 
must  be  represented  to  the  Emperor  of  Austria  that 
his  ruin  and  that  of  his  country  is  certain,  if  he  does 
not  consent.  It  is  perhaps  the  only  means  of  pre- 
venting the  Emperor  trom  making  a  schism  with 
the  Holy  See." 


1810  Feb.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  363 

Metternich   replied   to   his  wife: 

•'1  regard  this  affair  as  the  greatest  which  cculd, 
at  this  moment,  occupy  Europe.  .  .  .  Tbis  con- 
sideration led  me  from  the  first  moment  1  wag 
informed  of  the  probability  of  a  divorce,  to  turn 
to  the  Princess,  who  might  be  called  to  take  this 
part.  The  Archduchess  is  ignorant,  as  is  only 
riglit,  of  the  views  concerning  tier  .  .  .  but  our 
princesses  are  little  accustomed  to  choose  their 
husbands  from  affection,  and  the  respect  due  to 
the  wish  of  a  father  from  a  child  so  good  and  well 
brought  up  as  the  archduchess  makes  me  hope 
that  there  will  be  no  obstacle  on  her  part." 

Metternich's   private   views   of   the   prospects   ofdifpol^of 

Marie- 
such  a  union  may  be  gathered  from  this  observa-  Louise 

tion   in   his   letter  to  Schwarzenberg  on  the   same 

subject: 

*'If  the  deepest  feeling  arise  in  the  heart  of  any 

father  against  the  mere  notion  of  an  alliance  with 
Napoleon,    how  much    must   these   feelings   be   in- 
creased   when  the   father   finds  himself   the  sover 
eign  of  a  great  empire." 


Effects  of 
news 


Definite  arrangements  for  the  marriage  were  con- 
cluded on  February  7.     When  the  news  was  madefh^' 
public  in  Vienna,  stocks  fell  at  the  bourse.     Met- 
ternich wrote  to  Schwarzenberg: 

"At  a  distance  it  would  be  difficult  to  judge  of 
the  sensation  generally  produced  here  by  the  news 
of  the  marriage.  The  first  effect  on  the  exchange 
was  such  that  the  rate  to-day  would  have  been  at 
three  hundred,  and  even  less,  but  that  the  Govern- 
ment had  interest  to  hold  it  higher.  It  was  only 
by  buying  a  million  of  guldens  in  specie  withia 


364  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Feb.  1810 

the  limit  of  two  days  that  we  were  able  to  fix  it  at 
three  hundred  and  seventy.  Count  Shuvalov  [the 
Russian  Ambassador]  was  terrified  at  the  news." 

Metternich  forthwith  set  out  for  Paris  to  add  to 
the  splendor  of  the  imperial  wedding.  The  cele- 
bration was  set  for  April,  and  was  to  be  modelled 
closely  after  the  ceremonial  used  when  Marie  An- 
toinette was  married  to  Louis  XVI. 

While  Metternich  was  thus  employed  in  serving 
his  imperial  master  according  to  his  lights,  another 
faithful  servant  of  the  Austrian  emperor  was  aban- 
doned to  his  fate.  Andreas  Hofer,  the  leader  of 
the  Tyrolese  peasants,  who  had  been  betrayed  into 

Execution 

of  Hofer  French  hands  after  the  abandonment  of  the  Tyrol 
by  Austria,  was  court-martialled  as  a  bandit.  Some 
of  the  judges  stood  out  for  acquittal,  but  a  per- 
emptory order  arrived  from  Napoleon  by  the  helio- 
graph from  Milan,  fixing  Hofer's  execution  within 
twenty-four  hours.  He  was  shot  on  the  morning 
of  February  20,  on  the  bastion  of  Mantua.  His  last 
words  were:  "Good-by,  wretched  world,  this  death 
is  easy!" 

Scarcely  a  fortnight  after  Hofer's  execution  came 
the  death  of  Lord  Henry  Cavendish  in  England,  one 
of  the  greatest  scientists  of  the  time.  With  Watt, 
Black  and  Priestley  in  England,  and  with  Laplace, 
De  Luc  and  Lavoisier  in  France,  Cavendish  had 
conducted  a  series  of  experiments  in  chemistry 
which  determined  the  true  character  of  air.  He 
was  the  first  who  by  purely  inductive  experiments 
converted  hydrogen  into  water  and  who  established 
that  water  consists  of  two  gases.      This   discovery, 


Death  of 
CaTeodmb 


1810  March  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  865 

announced  by  Cavendish  in  his  "Experiments  on 
Air,"  published  in  1780,  provoked  a  greater  amount 
of  discussion  and  angry  polemics  than  any  other  dis- 
covery in  the  history  of  chemistry.  Arago  went  80„ 
far  as  to  charge  Cavendish  with  deceit  and  plagia-  watlr^'^  °' 
rism,  in  a  formal  charge  brought  before  the  Freucti 
Academy  of  Sciences.  Cavendish's  observations  oa 
the  action  of  light,  and  on  specific  and  latent  heat, 
prepared  the  way  for  the  more  important  scientitio 
discoveries  in  these  subjects  later  in  the  century. 
Cavendish  also  anticipated  several  of  those  great 
facts  in  common  electricity  that  were  subsequently 
made  known  to  the  scientific  world  through  the  in- 
vestigation of  Coulomb.    It  was  Cavendish  that  first 

computed  the  density  of  the  earth  at  5.45.     He  did  Computa- 
tion of 
this  by  means  of  but  seventeen  experiments.     The  earth's 

•'  '■  density 

approximate  accuracy  of  Cavendish's  observation 
was  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  German  scientist, 
Reich,  after  fifty-seven  experiments,  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  density  of  the  earth  was  5.44. 
"jord  Cavendish  died,  in  his  eightieth  year,  alone. 
Though  a  peer  of  the  realm,  and  very  rich,  he  had 
spent  almost  all  his  long  life  in  solitude.  He 
avoided  all  intercourse  with  women  and  scarcely 
ever  spoke  to  any  one.  Visitors  were  not  received 
at  his  house,  and  his  dealings  with  the  few  ser- 
vants who  attended  to  his  wants  were  carried  on 
by  means  of  notes  which  he  left  on  the  hail  table, 
liord  Brougham,  who  saw  him  at  one  or  two  meet- 
ings of  the  Royal  Society,  has  recorded  "the  shrill 
cry  of  the  old  philosopher  as  he  shuffled  from  room 
to  room,  seeming  to  be  annoyed  if  looked  at,  but 


866  A    BISTORT   or   THE  March  1810 

sometimes  timidly  approaching  to  hear  what  was 
passing  among  others.  On  all  points  which  had  no 
scientific  bearing,  Cavendish  was  coldly  indifferent; 
but  when  the  discovery  of  a  new  truth  in  science 
was  announced,  he  seemed  to  glow  all  over." 

At  the  time  of  Cavendish's  death,  public  opinion 
in  England  was  wrought  up  by  the  parliamentary 
storms  raging  over  the  Walcheren  fiasco,  and  the 
questions  that  arose  out  of  them  relative  to  the 
privileges  of  the  House  of  Commons  and  the  lib- 
erty of  the  press.  Mr.  Percival,  who  had  become 
Change  in  Prime  Minister  after  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Port- 

rfritisn 

Ministry  j^qJ^  Q^^st  tried  to  wcakcu  the  opposition  by  draw- 
ing Lord  Grey  and  Lord  Grenville  over  to  his 
side.  Failing  in  this,  he  formed  a  cabinet,  with 
the  Marquis  of  Weilesley  as  Secretary  of  State  for 
Foreign  AfiEairs,  the  Earl  of  Liverpool  Secretary  of 
War,  and  Mr.  Eyder  for  Home  Secretary.  On  the 
meeting  of  Parliament,  late  in  January,  the  opposi- 
tion, headed  by  Canning,  Grenville  and  Grey,  imme- 
diately called  for  a  censure  of  the  government  for 
its  conduct  of  foreign  affairs,  involving  the  military 
expeditions  to  Holland  and  Spain.  Lord  Chatham 
had  to  resign  his  master  generalship  of  ordnance. 
The  Ministry  yet  prevailed  by  a  majority  of  ninety- 

ofwar       six,   and  finally  obtained  a  parliamentary  vote  of 

criticised  '  ./  I-  J 

thanks  for  Lord  Wellington  and  his  army  in  the 
Peninsula.  During  the  parliamentary  debates  over 
the  course  of  the  war,  all  gazetteers  were  excluded 
from  the  house.  Sheridan  objected  to  this  in  a 
great  speech  on  the  liberty  of  the  press,  and  was 
supported    by   Cobden,   but   their   motion   was   de- 


1810  March  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  367 

feated.  This  outcome  was  severely  censured  by  a 
London  debating  club  called  the  "British  Forum." 
For  this  insult  to  Parliament,  John  Gail  Jones,  the 
president  of  the  society,  was  haled  before  the  House 
and  was  committed  to  Newgate  jail.  The  editor  of 
the  "Morning  Chronicle,"  who  pleaded  his  own 
case,  and  likewise  his  printer,  were  let  off.  Sir 
Francis  Burdette  objected  to  such  summary  meas- 
ures as  an  infringement  of  the  right  of  all  English- 
men to  jury  trial,  as  secured  by  Magna  Charta.  ov^eHi^b°° 
His  motion  to  liberate  Jones  was  overwhelmingly  press*' '  * 
defeated.  Sir  Francis  Burdette  repeated  his  argu- 
ments in  an  open  letter  to  his  constituents,  in  which 
he  denounced  the  action  of  Parliament.  For  this 
infringement  of  parliamentary  privilege  Burdette 
was  committed  to  the  Tower  by  a  vote  of  190 
against  152  of  his  colleagues.  Burdette's  house 
was  surrounded  by  a  mob,  and  the  warrant  for  his 
arrest  had  to  be  executed  by  a  large  force  of  con- 
stabulary and  soldiers.  Riots  occurred  around  the 
Tower  and  in  Piccadilly.  In  the  street  fighting  that 
followed  a  number  of  persons  were  killed.  Remon- 
strances and  petitions  about  the  matter  were  sent  to 
Parliament  from  all  over  England.  Sir  Francis 
Burdette    brought    an    action    in    law    against    the 

Francis 

Speaker   of    the    House   and    the  sergeant-of-arms,  Burdette 

t^  °  imprisoned 

but  lost  his  case.  When  he  was  finally  released 
at  the  prorogation  of  Parliament,  his  supporters  in 
great  numbers  paraded  London  with  placards  bear- 
ing such  inscriptions  as  "Magna  Charta,"  "Trial 
by  Jury,"  etc.  At  night  all  the  lower  districts  of 
London  were  illuminated.     The  episode  served  to 


368  A    HISTORY    OF   THE  March  1810 

establish  the  custom  of  newspaper  reports  of  par- 
liaraentary  debates  as  a  public  privilege.  Tbe 
"British  Register"  of  that  year  commented  on  this 
as  follows:  "When  the  House  of  Commons  first 
connived  at  the  introduction  of  booksellers,  or  tbeir 
^^1?^  reporters  in  the  gallery,  they  were  little  aware  of 
ment  the  consequcnces  that  were  to  follow  this  indul- 
gence. A  breed  of  satellites  have  noV  fastened 
themselves  on  Parliament,  whom  it  is  irksome  and 
grievous  to  endure,  yet  whom  it  would  be  danger- 
ous in  different  respects  altogether  to  exclude." 
While  the  mistakes  of  the  British  Ministry  were 
thrashed  out  in  Parliament  the  Spanish  situation  be- 
came ever  more  complicated.  The  national  struggle 
for  independence  in  Spain  had  produced  a  political 
revolution  there  unforeseen  by  Spaniards,  French- 
men, or  Englishmen.  The  threatening  attitude  of 
the  various  provincial  juntas,  and  of  the  old  royal 
councils,  induced  the  Supreme  Junta,  itself  an 
Cortes  irregular  and  revolutionary  body,  to  convoke  the 
to&^  Cortes  or  National  Parliament  for  March  1,  1810. 
According  to  old  Spanish  usage,  there  were  three 
chambers  in  which  three  estates  were  entitled  to 
representation;  to  wit,  the  clergy,  nobility  and  the 
people.  The  Spanish  Liberals  now  demanded  a 
single  chamber  for  all  three  estates,  while  the  Junta, 
beaded  by  Jovellanos,  declared  for  a  double  cham- 
ber, with  an  Upper  House  for  the  clergy  and  no- 
bles, and  a  House  of  Commons  for  the  representatives 
of  the  people.  Writs  of  election  had  already  been 
issued  when  the  advance  of  the  French  drove  the 
J  unta  irom  Seville  to  Cadiz.     Here  the  J  unta  found 


181C Spring  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  369 

itself  divided  among  its  own  members,  and  fell  into 
such  execration  that  by  the  end  of  January,  1810, 
it  resigned  its  powers  into  the  hands  of  a  fivefold 
regency.  On  January  20  and  21,  the  French  forced 
their  way  over  the  Sierra  Morena,  and  marched  on 
Be\ len,  Cordova,  and  Seville.  Soult  sent  a  divis- 
ion under  Sebastiani  against  Granada.  The  French 
defeated  ten  thousand  Spaniards  under  Ariesaga  prench 
and  Frere,  and  captured  all  the  artillery.    Granada  in  pema- 

sula. 

opened  her  gates  to  the  French,  and  a  battalion 
of  Swiss  who  had  deserted  to  the  British  eagerly 
returned  to  French  allegiance.  Sebastiani  left  a 
strong  garrison  at  the  Alhambra  and  pushed  on  to 
Malaga.  There  he  defeated  a  large  body  of  insur- 
gents. On  the  battlefield  some  fifteen  hundred 
dead  bodies  were  found,  among  them  many  peas- 
ants, priests  and  monks.  The  capture  of  Malaga 
was  of  great  importance  to  the  French,  since  it  cut 
off  communications  between  the  maritime  provinces 
of  Spain  on  the  east  coast  and  the  region  of  Cadis 
and  Gibraltar.  The  whole  peninsula  was  cut  in  two 
parts  by  a  military  cord  stretching  from  Bayonne 
through  Burgos  and  Valladolid  to  Madrid,  and 
thence  by  Toledo,  Andujar  and  Jaen  to  the  Gulf 
of  Malaga.  In  Portugal,  Wellington  prepared  for 
another  French  invasion  by  establishing  a  cor-  vveiiin?- 
don  of  his  own  along  the  line  of  the  mountain  aratlonr'*^ 
ridges,  running  from  the  Tagus  to  the  sea. 
While  the  English  army  wintered  near  Almeida, 
Wellington,  with  the  help  of  thousands  of  Portu- 
guese, turned  this  mountain  tract  into  an  impreg- 
nable barrier  by  a  double  serried  line  of  fortifica- 


870  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Spring  1810 

tions.  No  rumor  of  the  work  was  allowed  to  reach 
the  French  or  even  the  babbling  newspapers  at 
home. 

On  the  first  day  of  February,  Seville  surrendered 
to  Marshal  Victor.  The  Supreme  Junta,  on  the  ap- 
proach of  the  French  army  to  the  Guadalquivir,  fled 
to  the  Isle  of  Leon.     Of  the  eighty -six  members  of 

Flight  of  the  Junta,  most  betook  themselves  to  Cadiz,  some 
went  over  to  the  French,  while  others  fled  to  Eng- 
land and  America.  Thus  Count  Tilly  found  means 
to  reach  Philadelphia  with  a  round  sum  of  three 
million  dollars.  By  the  middle  of  February,  Cadiz 
was  invested  by  the  French,  with  King  Joseph  act- 
ing as  commander-in-chief.  The  French  forces  be 
fore  Cadiz  were  about  fifty  thousand,  while  the 
Spaniards,  Portuguese  and  English,  numbered 
twenty  thousand,  with  a  fleet  of  eight  sail-of- 
the-line  and  a  dozen  smaller  ships.  In  antici- 
pation of  the  siege,  the  South  American  loyalists 
sent  large  contributions  of  money;  and  flour  in  great 
abundance  was  brought  from  the  United  States. 
The  siege  went  on  but  slowly.  About  the  middle 
of  March  a  terrific  storm  wrecked  half  of  the  Span- 

Sie^eof      ish  fleet  and  drove  the  ships  ashore.     Later,  a  party 


Jieg« 

:;adi 


of  two  thousand  French  prisoners  succeeded  in  es- 
caping from  the  bay  of  Cadiz  on  board  of  their 
prison  ship.  It  was  a  notable  exploit.  During 
this  interminable  siege,  as  at  Saragossa  and  Gerona, 
Spanish  women  figured  in  the  fighting  on  the  ram- 
parts. The  French  during  this  same  time  made  at- 
tempts at  Valencia  and  flostalrich.  From  Valencia 
they  were  beaten  back  with  great  loss.     At  Hostal 


1810  Spring  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  871 

rich,  the  Spanish  column  under  O'Donnell  tried  to 
relieve  the  garrison,  but  was  beaten  back  after  a 
desperate  battle  at  Yich,  in  which  thirty-five  hun- 
dred Spaniards  were  taken  prisoners,  with  almost  33^^^,^  ^^ 
as  many  killed  and  wounded.  General  Souham,  ^'*''^ 
commanding  the  French  forces,  had  an  eye  shot 
out.  On  the  night  of  May  12,  the  garrison  of 
Hostalrich  made  a  desperate  attempt  to  escape 
from  the  city,  but  they  were  caught  in  the  act  and 

•^  '  -^  ^  Fall  of 

slain  almost  to  a  man.  General  Suchet  captured  Hostairioh 
Lerida  with  all  its  stores  by  refusing  to  let  the 
women  and  children  escape,  and  he  also  took 
Mequineza,  the  key  of  the  Ebro.  Valencia  and 
Tortoza  were  invested  in  turn.  Ney's  corps  set- 
tled down  to  besiege  Ciudad  Rodrigo.  sieg-eof 

Ciu'lad 

While  matters  stood  at  such  low  ebb  in  Spain,  Rodrigo 
the  tide  of  revolutionary  spirit  rose  in  South  Amer- 
ica. Early  in  the  year  the  Junta  at  Se villa  granted 
direct  representation  to  the  South  American  colo- 
nists, proclaiming  them  to  be  an  integral  part  of 
the  Spanish  nation.  "At  last  you  are  raised  to  the 
dignity  of  free  men,"  declared  the  Junta.  "The 
times  are  already  past  in  which,  under  an  unsup- 
portable  yoke,  you  were  the  victims  of  absolutism, 
ambition  and  ignorance.  Bear  in  mind  that  in 
electing  your  representative  to  the  Cortes,  your 
destiny  will  no  longer  depend  on  kings,  ministers 
or  governors,  but  is  in  your  own  hands."  ThCg^^j^^j^ 
regency  at  Cadiz,  while  confirming  this  measure,  asLIra^^, 
granted  to  the  South  American  colonists  but  one 
deputy  for  every  million  inhabitants.  Spain  had 
one  representative  for  every  hundred  thousand,  re- 


372  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  fpring  iMO 

^rdless  of  the  fact  that  the  greater  part  of  the 
peninsula  was  under  French  dominion.  At  the 
same  time  French  commissioners  arrived  in  South 
America  to  demand  the  oath  of  fidelity  to  King 
Joseph.  The  arrival  of  the  hateful  "afrancesados," 
as  they  were  called,  was  like  a  spark  in  a  powder 
mill.  All  South  America  was  ripe  for  revolution, 
and  as  of  one  accord  the  colonists  rose  in  the  north, 
south,  east  and  west  to  throw  ofif  the  yoke  of  Eu- 
rope. The  movement  had  already  started  in  Mex- 
ico, when  the  viceroy,  Don  Jos5  de  Iturrigaray,  was 

viceroy  dcposcd  by  the  people  and  superseded  by  a  marshal 
of  the  army.  After  a  few  months  of  his  rale,  the 
central  Junta  in  Spain  ordered  him  superseded  by 
the  archbishop  in  Mexico.  He  was  replaced  in  turn 
by  the  regency  of  Cadiz,  who  appointed  General 
Vinegaa  as  viceroy.  In  these  rapid  changes  of  rule 
the  people  discovered  how  easy  it  was  to  overturn 
a  government.  The  doctrine,  that  on  the  disap- 
pearance of  a  monarch  his  sovereignty  reverted 
to  the  people,    found   an  enthusiastic   advocate   in 

Hidaieo  Hidalgo,  a  Mexican  curate,  who  had  already  been 
disciplined  by  the  Inquisition  for  maintaining  dan- 
gerous opinions.  In  Venezuela,  there  was  Don 
Simon  Bolivar,  who  had  sworn  to  free  his  coun- 
try years  ago  on  the  Monte  Sacro  of  Rome,  after 
he  saw  Napoleon  place  the  iron  crown  of  Lombardy 

EoUvM  ^"^  ^'^  ^^°  head.  Bolivar  had  just  returned  to  his 
country  after  a  personal  study  of  republican  insti- 
tutions in  the  United  States.  On  April  18,  Wednes- 
day of  Holy  Week,  the  Spanish  commission  arrived 
in  Caracas,  and  demanded  adhesion  to  the  Kegency 


1810  Spring  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  373 

in  Cadiz.  Bolivar  spoke  the  word  which  set  South 
America  aflame.  "Tbis  power,"  he  said,  "which 
fluctuates  in  such  a  manner  in  Spain  and  does  not 
secure  itself,  invites  us  to  establish  a  Junta  of 
our  own  and  to  govern  ourselves."  The  next 
day  the  Municipal  Council  of  Caracas  invited  Em- 
peran,  the  Spanish  governor  of  the  colony,  to  at- 
tend their  session,  with  the  intention  of  offering 
him  the  presidency  of  the  Junta.  Jos^  Cortez  Ma- 
dariga,  a  Chilian,  rushed  into  the  council  room  and 
exclaimed:  "Beware  what  you  do.  You  are  blind 
if  you  put  yourselves  at  the  mercy  of  the  represen- 
tative of  Spain."  Emperan  fled  to  the  balcony  and 
addressed  the  crowd  below:  "Are  you  content  with 
me?"  he  asked.  "No,"  shouted  the  crowd,  "we j^^oj^j^q 
don't  want  you!"  "Then  1  don't  want  you!"  re-°^  aracas 
torted  Emperan,  and  gave  up  his  governorship. 
That  day  the  Junta  of  Caracas  was  proclaimed.  It 
refused  to  recognize  the  regency  of  Cadiz,  and 
banished  the  former  governor  to  the  United  States. 
The  revolution  had  been  accomplished  without  a 
gunshot. 

Previous  to  this  there  had  been  similar  revolts, 
the  first  of  which  was  instigated  by  Miranda  in  1806. 
In  1809  the  colonial  authorities  of  Quito  were  over- 
turned and  a  governing  Junta  was  set  up  with  a 
proclamation  that  "law  has  assumed  its  authority 
under  the  Equator."     In  the  same  year  the  Creoles  other 

revolts 

of  Peru  rose  in  Chuquisaca  and  La  Paz,  and  set  up 
an  independent  government  composed  exclusively 
of  Americans.  Both  these  revolts  were  put  down 
and  the  leaders  were  hang;ed  or  shot.     The  success 


video 


Chile 


874  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Summer  1819 

of  the  revolution  of  Caracas  inspired  the  other  colo- 
nists to  follow  Bolivar's  example.  The  viceroy  of 
Nueva  Granada  was  exiled  to  Cartagena.  In  Buenos 
A3^res   an   assembly  of    six    hundred    natives   rose 

^^^^  against  Portugal,  and  deprived  the  viceroy,  Bal- 
thazar de  Cisneros,  of  power.  The  Portuguese  sol- 
diers were  beaten  and  retreated  to  Montevideo,  but 

Monte-  here,  too,  as  in  all  other  provinces  of  upper  Peru, 
the  revolution  prevailed,  and  an  independent  Junta 
•was  established.  In  lower  Peru  the  colonial  gov- 
ernment of  Lima  was  able  to  hold  the  revolutionists 
in  check.  Chile  likewise  rose  in  1810  and  succeeded 
in  throwing  off  the  Spanish  yoke,  though  the  Cre- 
oles, who  fought  for  independence,  had  nothing  but 
the  most  primitive  arms.  In  Mexico  the  new  viceroy 
Yinegas's  demand  of  money  for  the  support  of  the 
Spanish  cause  was  met  by  Hidalgo's  Grito  de  Dolo- 
res, "The  Cry  of  Wrongs."     It  was  taken  up  by  a 

Mexico  couple  of  hundred  insurgents.  They  succeeded  in 
seizing  the  stronghold  of  Guanuajato.  Driven  from 
there,  Hidalgo  established  an  independent  govern- 
ment on  Guadalajara,  where  he  maintained  himself 
for  the  rest  of  the  year.  In  western  Florida,  filibus- 
ters from  the  United  States  assaulted  the  Spanish 

Baton 

Rouge  fort  at  Baton  Rouge.  Louis  Grand  Pr^,  the  com- 
mandant, died  as  its  sole  defender.  Western  Flor- 
ida was  turned  over  to  the  United  States.  Even 
Cuba   became    uneasy. 

The  divorce  of  the  American  colonies  from 
Spain  and  Portugal  was  effected  at  a  turn  in 
their  career  when  further  union  was  only  hurt- 
ful   to    all    concerned.      When    these    revolutions 


ISlOSunimer  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  S76 

broke  out  in  1810,  there  was  but  one  other  re 
public  in  the  world — the  United  States  of  ^Jorth 
America.  Switzerland  had  long  since  become  a 
dependency  of  the  French  empire.  It  was  confi- 
dently asserted  by  European  statesmen  that  South 
America  would  have  to  revert  either  to  France  or 
to  England  as  soon  as  one  of  these  two  great  con- 
testaots  should  prevail  over  the  other.  Otherwise 
nothing  but  barbarism  was  expected.  That  South 
America  did  not  fall  into  British  hands  at  this 
time  can  be  ascribed  only  to  the  forbidding  atti- 
tude of  the  United  States.  Already  an  English 
fleet  but  a  few  years  before  had  seized  Buenos 
Ayres  and  Montevideo,  only  to  be  ousted  again 
by  the  native  settlers.  Both  ports  then  had  to 
sustain   a   long    and    formidable    blockade    on    the  „ .,. . 

o  British 

part  of  British  cruisers.  During  the  course  of  the^®'^""^®* 
year  1810,  the  British  also  seized  the  French  colo- 
nies of  Guadeloupe  and  Isle  de  Bourbon.  Finally 
Java  and  Isle  de  France  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
British,  who  thus  were  made  absolute  masters  of 
the  sea. 

Napoleon's  new  Prime  Minister,  Fouchd,  con- 
ceived a  fantastic  plan  to  offset  this  loss  of  French 
prestige  beyond  the  seas.  Early  in  the  year  he  sent 
a  secret  agent  named  Fagan  to  suggest  that  if  Great 
Britain  would  yield  Spain,  France  would  join  in 
creating  out  of  the  Spanish -American  colonies  an 
empire  for  Ferdinand  VI.  of  Spain.  From  Louisi- 
ana it  was  suggested  a  monarchy  might  be  created  Plans  of 

°°  JO  Fouch6 

for  the  French  Bourbons.     Fouchd  was  instigated  to^^^^^g^j^ 
this  in  a  measure  by  Aaron  Burr,  who  had  betaken 


876  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Spring  1810 

himself  to  Paris  and  there  presented  a  memoir  to 
the  French  Government,  showing  that  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  United  States  could  be  accomplished  by 
a  combined  attack  of  French  troops  from  Canada 
and  from  Louisiana.  Fouch^'s  proposals  were  con- 
temptuously dismissed  by  the  British  Ministry.  Na- 
poleon learned  of  Fouch^'s  secret  correspondence 
by  an  accident,  as  he  was  about  to  set  out  with  his 
new  empress  on  their  wedding  journey  to  Holland. 
Fouchfi  "Fouch6,"  said  the  Emperor,  "is  always  thrusting 
dismissed  j^jg  ^jgjy  £^Q^  .j^^^  ^^^^^  people's  shocs. "  The  over- 
zealous  Minister  was  dismissed  and  was  exiled  to 
Italy  as  Governor  of  Rome. 

The  marriage  between  Napoleon  and  Marie  Louise 

had  been  first  solemnized  at  Vienna,  on  March  11, 

without  Napoleon.    On  this  occasion  he  felt  called 

upon    to   write    an    autograph    letter    to    Emperor 

Napoleon's  Francis  as  his  prospective  father-in-law.     Hitherto, 

betrothal  ^         '^ 

owing  to  the  fact  that  Napoleon  could  not  write 
legibly,  all  his  letters  had  been  written  by  secre- 
taries. 

"What  a  terrible  business  it  was  for  him,"  wrote 
his  secretary,  Mdndval.  "At  last,  having  taiica 
infinite  pains,  he  succeeded  in  writing  a  letter  which 
was  fairly  legible.  He  told  me  to  rectify  the  badly 
formed  letters  in  such  a  way  that  my  corrections 
would  not  be  noticeable.  1  did  my  work  as  best 
I  could,  and  sent  it  oS  to  'His  Majesty,  Sir,  my 
Brother.'  Of  course  Emperor  Francis  never  knew 
what  trouble  it  had  caused  the  writer." 

When  Marie  Louise  left  Vienna,  the  people  rioted 
on    the    streets.      She    was    conveyed    in    triumph 


1810  Spring:  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  877 

through  southern  Germany  and  through  France. 
It  was  arranged  that  she  was  to  meet  her  husband 
for  the  first  time  at  the  Chateau  of  Compi^gne,  la 
the  presence  of  all  his  court.  To  save  her  from 
embarrassment,  Napoleon  set  out  from  Compi^gne 
with  no  other  escort  but  Murat.  He  entered  her 
carriage  and  embrr.ced  her  cordially.  Marie  Louise, 
who  was  then  but  eighteen  years  old,  was  agreeably 
surprised  by  his  youthful  appearance.  "Your  por- 
trait, Sire,"  she  said,  "has  not  done  you  justice." 
Later  she  confessed  that  she  had  looked  forward 
to  her  union  with  Napoleon  in  terror.  How  Napo- 
leon was  regarded  in  the  imperial  household  ia 
Vienna  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  the 
young  princes  used  to  burn  him  in  effigy,  a  S^^^  weddias 
which  they  called  "roasting  the  monster."  The  re- S^f *'*^ 
petition  of  the  marriage  ceremony  in  France,  though 
a  mere  formality,  was  made  a  state  occasion.  Na- 
poleoD  gave  a  dowry  of  725  francs  to  each  of  six 
thousand  young  girls  who  on  the  day  of  his  French 
nuptials  should  marry  a  soldier  of  his  army.  On 
April  2,  the  Emperor  and  Empress,  seated  in  the 
coronation  carriage  of  glass  and  gold,  with  a  traia 
of  a  hundred  equipages  following  behind  them,  en- 
tered Paris  by  the  Arc  de  Triomphe.  Three  hun- 
dred thousand  persons  thronged  the  Champs  Elys^es. 
Hand  in  hand  Napoleon  and  Marie  Louise  passed 
into  the  Tuileries  through  the  long  gallery  of  mag- 
nificent paintings  which  connects  it  with  the  Lou- 
vre. In  the  evening,  amid  brilliant  illuminations, 
they  received  the  nuptial  blessing.  From  her  re- 
treat at  Navarre,  Josephine  wrote:  "Your  Majesty 


378  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Spring 1 810 

shall  never  be  troubled  in  your  happiness  by  any 
expression  of  my  grief."  Napoleon  said  to  his 
friends:  " Josephine  is  indeed  the  best  woman  in 
France."  At  St.  Helena  Napoleon  freely  recog- 
nized that  his  divorce  was  a  mistake.  He  then 
said:  "A  son  by  Josephine  would  have  completed 
my  happiness,  not  only  from  a  political  point  of 
view,  but  as  a  source  of  domestic  happiness.  As 
a  political  result  it  would  have  secured  to  me  the 

Napoleon's 

retrospect  possession  of  the  throne.  The  French  people  would 
have  been  as  much  attached  to  the  son  of  Josephine 
as  they  were  to  the  King  of  Eome,  and  I  should 
not  have  set  my  foot  in  an  abyss  covered  with 
flowers." 

From  Paris  Napoleon  set  out  on  his  wedding 
Journey  to  Holland.  Napoleon's  brother,  tbere. 
King  Louis,  had  come  under  extreme  disfavor  by 
his  lenient  attitude  toward  his  Dutch  subjects,  who 
carried  on  their  commerce  in  spite  of  the  continental 
blockade.     To  help  out  the  French  deficit  of  fifty 

uaparie^  millions,  much  to  the  disgust  of  Louis,  Napoleon 
gave  orders  to  seize  all  American  ships  that  should 
enter  Dutch  ports  in  violation  of  his  Milan  decree. 
To  the  Prussian  government.  Napoleon  wrote  at  the 
same  time:  "Let  the  American  ships  enter  your 
ports!  Seize  them  afterward!  You  shall  deliver 
the  cargoes  to  me,  and  I  will  take  them  in  part 
payment  of  Prussia's  war  debt."  To  the  American 
Minister,  Napoleon  thus  explained  his  attitude:  "If 
American  ships  have  been  sequestered  in  French 
{)orta,  France  only  imitates  the  example  given  her 
by  the  American  government,     l^he  American  act 


troubles 


American 
BGized 


1810  Spring  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  379 

of  Congress  of  March.  1,  1809,  which  orders  In  cer- 
tain cases  the  sequestration  and  confiscation  of 
French  ships,  that  are  excluded  from  American 
ports,  practically  interdicts  France  to  Americans. 
In  the  ports  of  Holland,  of  Spain,  of  Italy  and  of 
France,  American  vessels  have  been  seized  because 
the  Americans  have  seized  French  vessels."  Napo- 
leon's official  orders  in  that  sense,  known  as  the 
decree  of  Rambouillet,  were  issued  in  March.     The 

Decree 

total  amount  of  the  American  seizures  was  t.heno[^^j^^- 
esti mated  by  Napoleon  at  six  million  dollars.  The 
American  consul  at  Paris  reported  that  between 
April,  1809,  and  April,  1810,  fifty-one  American 
ships  had  been  seized  in  France,  forty-four  in 
Spain,  twenty-eight  in  Naples,  and  eleven  in  Hol- 
land. Had  Louis  carried  out  his  brother's  orders, 
the  seizures  in  Dutch  ports  would  have  been  far 
more  numerous.  Louis  was  summoned  to  France, 
and  by  way  of  punishment  was  compelled  tq  sign 
the  Dutch  treaty  of  March  16,  in  which  he  ceded 
the  provinces  of  Brabant,  Zeeland  and  a  part  of 
Guelders  to  France.     All  Dutch  commerce  with  the  Ji'eatyo' 

Holland 

outside  world  was  to  be  suppressed.  When  Louis 
returned  to  Holland,  he  could  not  bring  himself 
to  carry  out  these  humiliating  pledges.  He  tried 
to  evade  the  surrender  of  the  American  ships  to 
France,  and  objected  to  the  invasion  of  his  king- 
dom by  French  troops.  During  riotous  public  pro- 
ceedings in  Amsterdam,  Louis  publicly  expressed 
his  sympathy  with  the  cause  of  the  Dutch  people 
against  his  brother.  Napoleon  wrote  to  Louis: 
"They  who  do  not  love  France,  do  not  love  me. 


lands 


380  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Spring  1810 

Your  Majesty  will  find  in  me  a  brother,  if  1  fiad 
m  you  a  Frenchinau.  But  sbould  you  be  unmind- 
ful of  the  sentiments  which  attach  you  to  our  com- 
mon country,  you  must  not  take  it  amiss  if  1  disre- 
gard those  which  nature  formed  between  us."  In 
private,  Napoleon  said  angrily:  "Louis  has  been 
spoiled    by  reading  the   works  of    Rousseau."     A 

NeThl*r-"°' French  army  of  occupation  was  sent  into  Holland. 
The  Exchange  at  Rotterdam  was  turned  into  a  sta- 
ble for  French  cavalry.  About  the  middle  of  June, 
a  French  column  of  20,000  moved  on  Amsterdam. 
At  this,  Louis  left  his  capital  and  abdicated  the 
throne  of  Holland.  In  a  farewell  address  to  the 
Dutch  people  he  said:  "I  have  the  cruel  satisfac- 
tion, yet  now  the  only  one  that  is  left  me,  that  I 
have  fulfilled  my  obligations  to  Holland.  ...  I 
should  be  much  to  blame  if  I  consented  to  retain 
the  title  of  King,  being  no  longer  anything  but  an 
instrument,  no  longer  commanding  in  my  own  capi- 

teaigas^^^  tal,  and  perhaps  soon  not  even  in  my  own  palace. 
By  doing  so  I  should  betray  my  conscience,  my 
people  and  my  royal  duty,"  etc.  Louis  went  to 
Toeplitz  in  Bohemia  without  a  single  attendant. 
To  his  wife,  Hortense,  then  living  in  Paris,  he 
wrote  a  letter  forbidding  her  to  accept  anything 
from  Napoleon.  Napoleon  was  more  than  vexed. 
Savary  relates  that  when  Napoleon  received  the 
news  of  his  brother's  flight  and  abdication,  he  sat 
silent  for  several  minutes.  After  that  momentary 
stupor,  he  became  greatly  agitated.  "It  cannot  be 
denied,"  adds  Savary,  "that  his  brother's  conduct 
seriously   affected   the   Emperor's   cause   in   public 


Louis 


1810  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  381 

opinion."     Napoleon  made  matters  worse  by  first 
refusing  to  recognize  Louis's  abdication  as  not  au- 
thorized by  him,  and  next  by  his  annexation  of  all 
the  Netherlands,  "as  a  mere  aflfluvium  of  the  rivers 
of  France."    Amsterdam  was  made  the  third  city  of 
the  Empire.     Of  the  effect  of  these  measures,  Napo- 
leon  said   in   after   years   at  St.  Helena:  "My  an- Fi^enchAn. 
nexation   of    Holland   produced   a   most   unfavora-  ^°"*'"* 
ble  impression  throughout  Europe,  and  contributed 
greatly  to  lay  the  foundation  of  our  misfortunes." 
While  Louis  Bonaparte  went  into  voluntary  exile 
to   Bohemia,   Lucien-    Napoleon's   other   refractory 
brother,   prepared  to  ship   his  family  to  America,  lucien 
The  vessel  was  intercepted  by  British  cruisers  ovl^^^^^^ 
the  way,  and  Lucien  was  taken  to  England,  where 
he    remained    in    like    voluntary    exile. 

In  England,  Napoleon's  continental  system 
wrought  havoc  in  all  commercial  enterprises. 
Financial  failures  became  alarmingly  frequent  as 
the  common  people  fell  into  pauperism.  Many 
eminent  merchants  committed  suicide,  among  them 
Francis  Baring  and  Abraham  Goldschmid.  Paul 
Benfield,  the  East-Indian  millionnaire,  died  in  ex- 
treme poverty.  Napoleon,  observing  these  effects, 
gave  another  turn  to  the  screw.  He  issued  a  de- 
cree that  all  English  manufactures  found  in  France, 
Holland  or  the  German  states,  should  be  burned. 
Another  blow  for  England  was  the  absolute  acces- 
sion of  Sweden  to  the  continental  system.  Late  in  pr.nc^^Jf 
spring,  the  Crown  Prince  of  Sweden  had  died  sud-^^^'**° 
denly.  During  a  parade  of  troops  at  Qvidinge  he 
suddenly  dropped  dead  from  his  horse.      Reports 


882  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Summer  1 810 

of  attempts  to  poison  him  had  been  in  circulation 
before  his  death.  A  post-mortem  examination  by 
the  celebrated  chemist  Berzelius,  favored  this  sup- 
position. The  people  became  greatly  excited.  At 
the  funeral  of  the  prince  in  Stockholm,  the  mob 
killed  Count  Furzen,  marshal  of  the  realm,  who  was 
suspected  of  complicity  in  the  death  of  the  prince. 
Sweden  was  once  more  without  an  heir-apparent 
to  the  ohrone.  Those  in  power  were  anxious  to 
see  a  good  soldier  put  in  charge,  who  could  recap- 
ture Finland.  Count  Otto  Moeruer,  who  had  been 
a  prisoner  in  Jutland  when  Marshal  Bernadotte 
commanded  that  province,  conceived  the  original 
scheme  of  placing  him  on  the  throne.  Bernadotte 
consented  in  a  guarded  manner,  and  so  did  Napo- 
leon, though  privately  he  declared  himself  averse 
Bernadotte  to  the  project.     Count  Mocrncr's  act  was  disavos^cd 

called  to  ,<-<  i-i»«--  1  >«  -1 

Sweden  by  the  Swcdish  Ministry,  but  Moerner  carried  on 
his  agitation  with  so  much  success  that  the  Swed- 
ish Riksdag  selected  Bernadotte.  Thus  Bernadotte, 
though  by  no  means  among  the  most  brilliant  of  the 
military  adventurers  produced  by  the  French  Revo- 
lution, found  himself  at  the  goal  of  all,  on  as  high  a 
plane  as  the  Bonapartes  and  their  immediate  rela- 
tives, Murat  and  Eugene  Beaiiharnais. 

Jean  Baptiste  Jules  Bernadotte,  at  the  outbreak 
of  the  BVench  Revolution,  was  a  common  soldier 
in  the  Royal  Marine  corps.     After  ten  years'  ser- 

previous  vice  hc  had  been  promoted  only  to  a  sergeantcy. 
The  disorders  of  the  Revolution  gave  him  his 
chance.  On  the  flight  of  his  superior  officers,  he 
was  made  captain  of  his  company.     General  Kleber 


career 


1810  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  383 

took  him  unaer  his  patronage  and  made  him  a 
colonel.  After  Kleber's  victory  at  Flearus,  Ber- 
nadotte  was  given  command  of  a  brigade.  He 
served  with  Napoleon  throughout  the  first  Italian 
campaign.  Having  opposed  the  latter,  at  the  time 
of  his  coup  d'dtat,  on  the  18th  of  Brumaire,  he 
found  means  of  making  peace  with  him  through  his 
marriage  with  the  sister-in-law  of  Joseph  Bonaparte, 
one  Mademoiselle  Clairy,  the  daughter  of  a  grocer 
in  Marseilles.  Though  thus  related  to  Napoleon  byp^^j^., 
marriage,  the  two  never  got  on  well  together.  His  w'lth^BoIi^^ 
career  as  a  general  was  attended  by  varying  success.  ^^^  ^ 
Altogether  he  saw  so  much  service,  that  by  dint  of 
experience  alone  he  was  bound  to  learn  the  art  of 
war.  Thus  he  distinguished  himself  at  the  crossing 
of  the  Rhine  at  Neuwied,  and  in  the  battle  of  Aus- 
terlitz.  At  other  times  his  lack  of  success  exasper- 
ated Napoleon.  This  was  notably  the  case  during  f^jl^J^^^ 
the  early  part  of  the  last  Austrian  war,  and  again 
at  the  battle  of  Wagram,  when  he  was  sent  home 
in  disgrace.  As  military  governor  of  Jutland  and 
Pomerania,  he  showed  himself  an  able  adminis- 
trator, and  his  treatment  of  the  Swedish  captives, 
who  were  then  under  his  charge,  was  so  humane 
that  he  endeared  himself  to  them  forever.  It  was 
to  this  that  he  owed  his  elevation  to  the  Swed- 
ish throne.  The  last  obstacle  was  overcome  when 
Napoleon  lent  him  a  million  francs.  Bernadotte 
joined   the   Lutheran   Church    at   Elsinor.      As    he„      ^  ,, 

*  Bernadotts 

landed  in  Sweden,  on  October  10,  1810,  he  was  de-p,?Jnceof 
clared   heir-apparent  as  Prince  Charles,  or  Charles 
Johann,   as   he  called   himself   henceforward.      By 


384 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


Autumn  1810 


Napoleon': 
comment 


French 

capLiire 

Ciudad 

Roiirigo 


Welling- 
t<'ii  in 
Portugal 


his  politic  conduct  and  diplomatic  manners,  he 
soon  gained  such  an  ascendency  that  the  throne 
of  Sweden  fell  to  him.  as  by  right. 

Those  Swedish  politicians,  who  had  thought  by 
their  selection  of  Bernadotte  to  please  Mapoleon 
and  gain  a  strong  point  with  him,  were  mistaken. 
Napoleon  revealed  his  true  motives  in  consenting 
to  their  choice  in  a  private  conversation  with 
Metternich.  To  him  he  said:  "For  my  part  I 
am  delighted  to  be  rid  of  him,  I  ask  nothing 
better  than  his  removal  from  France.  Ue  is 
one  of  those  old  Jacobins  with  his  head  io  the 
wrong  place.  .  .  .  Yet  a  French  marshal  on  the 
throne  of  Grustavus  Adolphus  is  one  of  the  best 
ti'icks  that  could   be  played   on   England." 

Other  measures  to  hurt  England  were  not  neg- 
lected. Throughout  this  time,  the  war  in  Spain  and 
Portugal  had  been  carried  on  with  obstinate  vigor. 
On  the  day  after  the  French  flag  was  hoisted  over 
Amsterdam,  Ciudad  Rodrigo,  at  the  end  of  a  long 
siege,  was  compelled  to  surrender  to  Marshal  Ney. 
His  troops  were  about  to  storm  the  last  breach. 
Half  a  year  had  ^passed  since  the  French  had  re- 
sumed the  ojBEensive  in  Spain.  Battle  on  battle 
had  been  won,  and  stronghold  after  stronghold 
had  fallen.  Portugal  alone  remained  unsubdued. 
To  hold  Portugal,  Lord  Wellington  called  for  re- 
inforcements to  bring  the  British  fighting  force  up 
to  30,000  men.  He  also  asked  for  a  financial  sub- 
sidy of  several  million  pounds  sterling,  wherewith 
to  keep  60.000  soldiers  on  their  feet.  The  British 
Ministry,   though  startled  at  these  figures,  granted 


1810  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  386 

Wellington's  demand,  and  undertook  to  pay  an 
annaal  subsidy,  £1,000,000,  to  Portugal.  Welling- 
ton had  himself  made  marshal-general  of  Fortugal, 
independent  of  the  Portuguese  Kegency.  By  vir- 
tue of  this  authority  he  revived  the  ancient  military 
laws  of  the  kingdom,  by  which  he  brought  66,000 
Portuguese  to  the  colors,  and  forced  them  to  devas- 
tate their  own  country  along  the  entire  line  of  the 
invasion,  four  hundred  miles  long.  The  French 
forces  available  for  the  invasion  numbered  over 
80,000.  The  famous  triple  line  of  defence  of  the  t'^^^to"^* 
Torres  Vedras  was  Wellington's  own  idea.  Be- 
tween the  lines  lay  a  wasted  country  in  which  no 
invader  could  maintain  himself  for  any  length  of 
time.  The  innermost  line  of  intrenchments  was 
thrown  up  in  case  disaster  should  make  sudden 
embarkation  imperative.  For  the  same  purpose, 
an  English  fleet  was  held  in  readiness  wherein  to 
embark  the  army  at  short  notice.     As  the  ravages  Enf^-iish 

subsidies 

of  the  war  increased,   all  Portugal  had  to  be  fed 
by  England. 

During  the  siege  of  Ciudad  Eodrigo,  the  English 
lines  of  outpost  under  General  Craufurd  were  grad- 
ually forced  back  on  the  banks  of  the  Agueda. 
Wellington  felt  himself  too  weak  to  succor  Ciudad 
Eodngo,  and  had  to  see  the  place  fall,  though 
within  easy  striking  distance.  On  July  24,  Gen- 
eral Craufurd,  having  kept  on  the  other  side  oi 
the  Coa  against  Wellington's  express  orders,  was 
overwhelmed  by  Ney's  whole  army.  His  forces  ^^ro^ 
were  thrown  across  the  river  in  great  confusion. 
At  the  bridge  of  Castillo  Boin,  the  British  made  a 

XlXth  Century— Vol.  1—17 


886  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Summer  1810 

Stand,  and  successfully  held  up  the  advancing  col- 
c^tfiio''  umns  of  the  French.  A  thousand  Frenchmen  fell 
in  trying  to  force  the  passage.  Ciudad  Kodrigo 
furnished  the  French  with  a  good  base  of  supplies, 
and  Wellington's  situation  soon  became  embarrass- 
ing. The  corps  of  Ney  and  E,eynier  were  too  strong 
to  be  attacked  by  the  British,  and  on  the  other  side 
Massena  was  approaching  with  the  Spanish  army. 
The  Spanish  generals,  discontented  with  Welling- 
ton's abandonment  of  Ciudad  Rodrigo,  grew  restive, 
and  undertook  operations  on  their  own  responsibil- 
ity. Romana  and  Ballesteros,  in  a  joint  action  at 
gpg^jjjgjj^g.  Benveneda,  were  routed  by  Mortier.  Their  defeat 
j^nveneda  was  a  scrious  matter  for  the  defence  of  Portugal. 
It  might  have  proved  disastrous,  had  an  English 
expedition  landing  at  Moguer  not  drawn  Mortier's 
forces  rearward.  Still  more  serious  for  Wellington 
was  the  fall  of  Almeida  and  the  accidental  explosion 
of  the  British  powder-magazine  at  Albuquerque, 
Ahneida  which  killed  four  hundred  men.  In  September, 
Mass^na's  forces  at  last  invaded  Portugal  for  the 
third  time.  Massdna,  now  grown  cold  with  age  and 
honor,  was  in  complete  ignorance  concerning  the 
strength  of  the  lines  of  Torres  Vedras.  Even  the 
English  officers  and  soldiers  generally  believed  that 
their  unpropitious  campaign,  like  that  of  Sir  John 
Moore,  would  end  with  embarkation  for  England. 
Indeed,  the  British  Ministry  was  prepared  for  such 
an  event.  Lord  Liverpool,  writing  to  a  friend  in 
Lisbon  about  this  time,  opened  his  letter  thus. 
"As  it  is  probable,  the  army  will  embark  in  Sep- 
tember."    Deceived   by   imperfect  reconnoissance, 


rmiiU'iJ  by  air  1  Uuuima  Luwrcuc* 


WELLINGTON 


A'/Ai/i  Cent.,  yoi.  One 


1810  Autumn  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  387 

Massena  threw  the  main  column  of  his  army,  num- 
bering 61,000  men,  on  the  worst  road  in  Portugal, 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  Mondego.  The  British 
and  Portuguese  retreated  all  along  the  line.  They 
concentrated  their  forces  in  a  formidable  position 
on  the  Sierra  Busaca  in  front  of  Coimbra,  Mas- 
s^na's  slow  approach  gave  Wellington  a  chance 
to  rally  his  retreating  troops.  Before  daybreak, 
on  September  29,  the  columns  of  Ney  and  Reynier 

"^  Battle  ol 

Stormed  the  heights.  They  were  driven  from  tht-  sierra 
crest  again  by  the  countercharge  of  British  re- 
serves. Thenceforward  the  fight  was  for  the  pos- 
session of  the  hilltops.  During  this  battle  occurred 
the  famous  incident  of  the  Portuguese  girl,  who 
drove  an  ass  laden  with  baskets  straight  through 
the  contending  lines  of  both  armies,  apparently  un- 
mindful of  the  fact  that  she  was  in  the  thick  of  a 
bloody  battle.  By  nightfall  the  French  gave  up 
the  attempt  to  gain  the  Sierra.  They  had  lost  two 
generals  and  forty -five  hundred  men,  while  the  Brit- 
ish and  Portuguese  lost  thirteen  hundred.  Though 
Wellington  won  his  battle,  he  had  been  compelled 
to  fight  It  at  too  great  a  risk.  He  himself  in  later 
years  characterized  it  as  a  political  battle  and  there- 

,  A  mistak* 

fore  a  mistake.     On  the  part  of  Massena  it  was  a  ^■^^o'^ 
still  worse  mistake,  as  his  army  was  not  in  a  con- 
dition to  fight.      Napoleon,    while  commenting  on 
this   battle,   said   of   Massena    that   his  dispositions 
for  battle  were  always  bad. 

The  French  reached  Coimbra  on  the  first  day  of 
October,  just  as  their  fortnight's  supply  of  bread 
was  exhausted.      Three   days   afterward,    Massena 


388  A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


Autumn  1810 


pushed  on.  The  next  day  Colonel  Trant,  operat- 
ing with  a  detached  column  in  the  neighborhood, 
Coimbra'  galloped  into  Coimbra  with  several  squadrons  of 
yeomanry,  and  seized  the  French  stores  and  hos- 
pitals in  Massena's  rear.  Nearly  five  thousand 
prisoners  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  small  British 
force.  The  brilliance  of  the  exploit  was  tarnished 
by  acts  of  barbarous  atrocity. 

Mass^na  did  not  let  this  deter  him  from  pushing 
on.  By  the  middle  of  October  he  came  up  to  the 
line  of  the  Torres  Vedras.  The  first  line  stretched 
from  the  Alhandra  on  the  Tagus  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Zizandro  on  the  sea-coast,  twenty-nine  miles 
away.  The  next  line,  about  ten  miles  further 
back,  extended  from  Quintello  on  the  Tagus  to 
the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lorenzo,  twenty-four  miles 
away.  An  innermost  short  line,  intended  to  cover 
the  possible  embarkation,  ran  from  the  Passo 
The  Torres ^'"^''^^^  ou  the  Tagus  to  the  Towcr  of  Junquena, 
Vedras  ^  distance  of  three  miles.  Altogether  the  three 
lines  included  fifty  miles  of  fortifications,  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  separate  forts,  with  six  hundred 
mounted  guns,  commanding  good  ranges.  Here 
the  combined  British  and  Portuguese  armies  were 
reinforced  by  Romana's  force  of  six  thousand  Span- 
iards. In  all,  120,000  fighting  men  were  stationed 
between  the  lines  behind  ramparts  of  stone  walls 
and  crossed  trees  twenty  feet  in  thickness.  As 
Napier,  the  great  historian  of  the  Peninsular  war, 
has  remarked:  "Not  even  the  Romans  ever  reared 
greater  works  in  their  time." 

Mass6na,   when   he   realized  the  strength  of  the 


1810  Autumn  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  389 

Torres  Vedras,  sat  down  with  his  army  at  Santa- 
rem.  The  war  thenceforth  was  reduced  to  a  block- 
ade. For  the  JPortuguese  this  proved  a  severe  trial 
of  endurance,  and  10,000  men  of  their  line  deserted 
before  the  end  of  the  year.  The  generals  on  either 
side  were  loth  to  risk  a  battle  without  distinct 
advantage,    and    therefore    preferred    to    wait    for Pemusuiar 

•^  ■*•  war  at 

reinforcements.  Thus  the  war  in  the  Peninsula ^^^"''*'''^ 
dragged  itself  out  with  the  French  besieging  Cadiz 
on  one  side,  and  Wellington  holding  them  in  check 
before  the  Torres  Vedras  on  the  other.  Late  in 
November,  the  French  forces  in  the  north  had  to 
full  back  on  their  base,  and  Wellington  descended 
from  tbe  Torres  Vedras  to  harass  tbeir  retreat. 

Iti  England  there  was  great  reluctance  to  rein- 
force Wellington,  largely  on  account  of  the  King's 
incapacity  for  public  affairs.  The  spell  of  insanity 
from  which  he  had  suffered  in  1788,  and  intermit- P^°'"«®^ 
tently  since  that  time,  returned  during  the  con-***'®^ 
tinned  illness  of  his  youngest  daughter,  Amalie. 
When  she  died  in  the  autumn  the  old  king  grew 
unmanageable.  Parliament  appointed  a  commission 
of  inquiry  preparatory  to  appointing  the  Prince  of 
Wales  regent  of  the  kingdom.  During  this  period 
of  political  depression,  the  arts  and  sciences  flour- 
ished in  an  unusual  degree.  The  end  of  this  year 
was  made  signal  in  literary  annals  by  the  first 
appearance  of  Shelley's  early  lyrics,  and  by  the  fnliisb 
simultaneous  publication  of  Southey's  ''Curse  of 
Kahama"  and  Walter  Scott's  "Lady  of  the  Lake." 

From  a  political-economical  point  of  view,  gloom 
at  this  time  seemed  to   hang  over  a  large  part  of 


390  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Autumn  1810 

Europe.     Austria  passed  through  a  financial  crisis, 

worse  than  ever  before,  aggravated  as  it  \riis  by  an 

Austrian    issue  of  spurious  government  bonds  that  had  been 

financial 

crisis         printed  by  Napoleon  before  the  conclusion  of  the 

peace  of  Schoenbrunn.  An  affliction  fell  on  the  royal 

Death  of     housc  and  people  of  Prussia  by  the  death  of  Queen 

Queen  .  .  . 

Louise       Louise,  the  idol  of  her  country.     This  sad  event  in 

a  measure  spoiled  the  popular  rejoicings  over  the 

University  long-defcrrcd  foundation  of  the  University  of  Ber- 

of  Berlin  °  -^ 

founded  \\j^^  which  began  its  academic  career  under  the  lead- 
ership of  Wilhelm  von  Humboldt.  From  the  start 
this  university,  like  the  older  universities  of  Ger- 
many, became  a  hotbed  of  patriotic  agitation  against 
Napoleon  and  the  aggressions  of  the  French.  By 
the  students  of  the  universities,   Napoleon's  high- 

Fnn^v^       handed   annexation  of    the  three   Hanseatic   cities, 

citi^^^  "^  Hamburg,  Bremen  and  Lubeck,  at  this  time,  was 
openly  resented  as  a  national  affront. 

In  the  south  of  Europe  great  preparations  were 
made  during  this  period,  by  King  Joachim  Murat 
of  Naples,  for  an  invasion  of  Sicily.  To  this  end 
37,000  troops  and  a  flotilla  were  collected.  Early 
in  the  summer,  Murat  had  declared  he  would  be 
in  Palermo  by  the  middle  of  August.  The  peo- 
ple of  Sicily  were  called  upon  to  throw  off  tha 
British  yoke.  Sir  John  Stuart  gathered  together 
a  Sicilian  army  and  his  own  fifteen  hundred  troops, 
and  encamped  them  along  the  coast  from  the  Straits 

^^lonir^^    Messina   to   the    Faro    Pont.     A  strong   British 

'"'^         squadron  cruised  up  and  down  the  coast  of  Sicily. 

A  debarkation    of   3,500  Neapolitan    and   Corsican 

troops  was  effected  only  by  September  18.     After 


1810  Winter  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  S91 

a  sharp  encounter  they  were  driven  back  to  their 
boats  with  a  loss  of  eight  hundred  prisoners.  On 
October  3,  Murat  gave  up  the  attempt  with  a  proc- 
lamation to  his  soldiers  that  the  expedition  had 
been  adjourned. 

In  spite  of  the  armistice  supposed  to  exist  in  the 
Balkans,  the  Russian  troops  there  continued  their 
encroachments  against  the  Turks.  When  the  Sul- 
tan refused  to  countenance  their  aggressions  the  war 
recommenced.  The  Russians  conquered  nearly  all 
the  forces  on  the  Danube,  but  were  defeated  in 
Bulgaria  by  the  Grand  Vizier.  The  Russians  took  warmth© 
Vidin,  Custov,  Georgioi,  but  their  progress  was  ar- 
rested at  Rustshuk,  Shumla  and  Varna,  with  heavy 
losses  on  both  sides.  Field-Marshal  Kemenski  re- 
conquered Bulgaria  as  far  as  the  Balkans  and  gained 
a  briUiaut  victory  at  Batyma.  The  Servians,  too, 
were  successful  in  almost  all  their  operations  against 
the  Turks.  Pressed  as  the  Sultan  was  by  these 
troubles  in  the  Balkans,  he  was  able  to  send  troops 
into  Syria  to  suppress  the  rebellion  of  the  Wacha- 
bites,  and  he  also  sent  a  fleet  into  the  Black  Sea, 
as  a  demonstration  against  the  Crimea.  At  last  with- 
the   imminence   of    a   rupture   with   France   forced  Rlfssian 

troops 

the  Czar  to  withdraw  several  divisions  of  his 
army  from  the  Danube. 

The  estrangement  between  Alexander  and  Na- 
poleon was  gradually  becoming  more  acute.  Napo- 
leon vented  his  discontent  at  the  lukewarm  support 
of  Russia  during  his  war  with  Austria,  by  favoring 
the  growth  of  the  Duchy  of  Warsaw,  and  by  his 
abrupt  abandonment  of  the  project  of  his  marriage 


392  A     HISTORY    OF    THE  Winter  1810 

with  a  Russian  princess.     It  was  at  this  time  that 

drscoluent  L^sur  published  the  famous  book   entitled:    "The 

Alexander  Progress  of  the  Russian  Power,"  in  which  we  meet 

for  the  first  time  with  the  apochrjphal  "Will   of 

Peter  the  Great,"   enjoining   upon  his  descendants 

never    to    lose    sight    of    Constantinople.      To    the 

personal   bitterness   of    feeling   between  Alexander 

and   Napoleon,   was    added    the    increasing    rivalry 

of     the    two    nations    on     the    Danube,    and     the 

Russian     Commercial  distress  occasioned    in   Russia   by  Na- 

with'°°      poleon's   continental    blockade.     The    ruble,  which 

France 

was  worth  sixty-seven  kopeks  in  1807,  was  worth 
not  more  than  twenty  five  kopeks  in  1811.  When 
Napoleon,  emboldened  by  his  easy  annexation  of 
the  Canton  of  Vallis,  in  Switzerland,  without  fur- 
ther   warning    announced    the    annexation    of    the 

an^i^°  Duchy  of  Oldenburg  in  the  north,  the  patience 
urg  ^j  Alexander  was  exhausted.  First  he  issued  a 
formal  protest  against  this  spoliation  of  bis  kins- 
man, the  Duke  of  Oldenburg.  He  followed  this 
up  by  an  imperial  decree  breaking  up  the  conti- 
nental blockade  as  far  as  Russian  ports  were  con- 
cerned. All  colonial  produce  was  to  be  admitted 
to    Russia,   while,   on    the   other   hand,    he  forbade 

Alexander  i\^q  importation  of  articles  of  luxury,  to  wit:  silks, 
ribbons,  embroideries,  bronzes,  porcelain  and  wine 
— in  fine,  all  the  chief  products  of  France.  After 
the  pattern  of  Napoleon's  latest  measure,  all  con- 
traband goods  were  ordered  to  be  burned.  This 
struck  France  in  a  tender  spot.  Napoleon,  en* 
raged,  said  to  the  Russian  Ambassador:  "I  would 
rather  have  received  a  blow  on  the  cheek." 


iSliJaa.  mNETEENTa  CENTURY  S93 


1811 

AT  THE  opening  of  the  year  1811  in  Eng- 
land the  question  of  the  insanity  of  King 
George  III.  came  up  for  final  settlement. 
The  Prince  of  Wales  was  appointed  regent  pending  En|iish 
the  king's  indisposition.  That  he,  too,  regarded  this 
as  a  mere  temporary  measure  was  made  plain  by  the 
fact  that  he  continued  his  father's  ministers  in  of- 
fice, although  personally  out  of  accord  with  them. 
Furthermore,  lie  refused  to  open  Parliament  in  per- 
son, nor  would  he  accept  a  special  grant  for  his  house- 
hold pending  the  regency.  The  Crown's  opening  ad- 
dress to  Parliament,  accordingly,  was  written  by  the 
ministers  of  the  mad  king,  as  heretofore.  The  most 
important  point  of  the  speech,  was  a  pledge  to  con- 
tinue the  war  in  the  Peninsula. 

The  campaign  in  Portugal  had  by  this  time  taken 
a  turn  distinctly  favorable  to  the  English.  Massdna, 
with  his  French  army,  lay  in  a  devastated  country 
remote  from  all  sources  of  supply,  whereas  Welling- 
ton was  among  a  friendly  people,  with  Lisbon  for  a 
base  of  supplies  and  a  harbor  accessible  to  all  the 
vessels  that  the  power  and  wealth  of  England  could 
freisfht.  For  a  while  brisk  fiojhtinac  continued.  Dur-Faiiof 
ing  the  month  of  January,  Marshal  Suchet  took 
Tortosa    and   Santo   FiUpe   de   Balagnier   in   Cat, 


394 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


Feb.  18H 


Death  of 
Romafia 


Battle  ot 
Barosa 


Ionia.  The  important  stronghold  of  Olivenza  like- 
wise fell  into  French  hands  after  a  short  siege. 
SoLilt  now  marched  on  Badajos.  The  untimely 
death  of  the  Marquis  of  Eomana,  who  com- 
manded the  Spanish  forces  in  that  region,  proved 
a  great  loss  to  the  allies.  He  was  succeeded  by 
General  Mendozabal,  who  imprudently  shut  him- 
self up  in  Badajos  with  six  thousand  men.  The 
siege  of  the  French  was  enlivened  by  constant  sal- 
lies and  skirmishes  beyond  the  works.  On  Feb- 
ruary 19,  Marshal  Soult  crossed  the  Gebora  and 
beset  Mendozabal's  fortress  with  such  fury  that 
the  Spaniards  were  routed  early  in  the  forenoon. 
The  Spanish  general  escaped  with  difficulty.  Nearly 
eight  hundred  Spaniards  were  taken  with  all  their 
stores.  The  rest  got  into  Badajos.  Near  Cadiz,  in 
the  meanwhile,  the  English  landed  reinforcements 
and  marched  on  Victor's  forces  at  Barosa.  The 
French  attacked  first  and  routed  the  Spanish  aux- 
iliaries under  General  La  Pena.  The  British,  under 
Graham,  made  a  counter-attack,  and  in  a  brief  but 
hard-fought  action  overcame  the  French.  Gener- 
als Kuflin  and  Chaudron-Rousseau,  commanding  the 
French  grenadiers,  were  both  killed.  The  French 
lost  2,500  men,  two  general  officers,  six  guns  and 
one  eagle.  The  British  casualties  were  1,200  sol- 
diers and  five  officers.  General  Graham,  who  won 
this  battle,  was  so  imbittered  by  the  attempt  of  La 
Penu  to  claim  the  victory  as  his  own,  that  he  fought 
a  duel  about  the  matter,  and  then  relinquished  his 
command,  to  join  Wellington's  army  in  Portugal. 
Then  Imaa,  the  new  Spanish  commandant  of  Bada- 


Mil  March  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  395 

jos,  misled  by  false  reports  of  the  French  numbers, 
weakly  surrendered  the  town  to  Soult.  When  the  ^p?ure 
place  fell,  Mortier  marched  against  Campo  Major,  *  ^^*^ 
and  Latour-Maubourg  seized  Albuquerque  and 
Valencia  d'Alcantara.  Great  as  were  the  suc- 
cesses of  Soult,  he  was  compelled  to  fall  back 
into  Andalusia  when  he  heard  of  Mass^na's  re- 
treat from  Sant'  Arem.  Mass^na  claimed  that 
Soult's  delay  before  Badajos,  instead  of  coming 
down  the  Tagus,  was  the  chief  cause  of  his  fail- 
ure. The  more  obvious  reason  lay  in  the  inability 
of  the  French  to  maintain  communications.  The 
arrival  of  British  reinforcements  early  in  March, 
before  the  promised  reinforcements  from  France 
could  reach  Massena,  compelled  the  latter  to  fall 
back.  The  French  retreat  was  conducted  in  a 
masterly  manner.  A  full  week  passed  before  the 
English  got  into  touch  with  the  French  rearguard  jjassena's 
under  Ney.  In  a  brilliant  rear  action,  at  Eedinha, 
Ney  foiled  his  pursuers.  At  this  point  Massena 
could  have  seized  Coimbra,  but  a  demonstration  of 
British  cavalry  in  his  rear  scared  the  French  into  a 
belief  that  British  reinforcements  had  come  by  sea  to 
the  Mondego.  Thereafter  the  retreat  of  the  French 
became  ever  more  hurried.  At  Fontecoberta,  Mas- 
sena, having  lingered  too  long,  only  escaped  himself 
by  plucking  the  feathers  off  his  hat  and  making  a 
dash  for  life  through  the  lines  of  pursuing  cavalry. 
At  Castelnova,  Marshal   Ney   was  nearly  captured  Battle  of 

''  >■  Castelnova 

by  the  Fifty-second  British  Infantry,  which,  ad- 
vancing through  a  mist,  found  itself  detached  in 
the  midst  of  the  French  rearguard.     By  a  general 


896  A    HISTORY    OF   THE  March  1811 

engagement  only  did  Wellington  succeed  in  extri- 
eating  this  regiment  from  its  dangerous  predica 
ment.  In  the  face  of  heavy  losses,  Key  heid  the 
entire  British  line  until  the  end  of  the  day,  and 
thus  saved  Mass^na's  retreat.  During  this  retreat, 
all  the  resting-places  of  the  French  were  burned  down 

Ravages  by  the  Spanish  peasantry,  and  the  country  was  rav- 
aged for  miles  around.  Colonel  Napier,  who  was 
an  eye-witness  of  some  of  the  miseries  of  those 
days,  has  thus  summed  up  the  general  impres- 
sions: "Every  horror  making  war  hideous  at= 
tended  this  dreadful  retreat.  Distress,  conflagi*a' 
tion,  death  in  all  modes — from  wound,  from  fa- 
tigue, from  water,  from  the  flames,  from  starvation; 
on  every  side  unlimited  ferocity.     Even  the  body 

British       ot  John  I.  of  Spain  was  wantonly  exhumed  from 

Tandalism 

Its  tomb  in  the  convent  of  Batalza  and  was  pulled 
to  pieces  by  British  officers." 

When  Massena  opened  communication  with  th© 
town  of  Almeida,  his  retreat  was  practically  at  an 
end.  To  retrieve  his  fallen  fortunes,  he  deter- 
mined to  countermarch  through  Sabougal,  thence 
to  resume  communications  with  Soult  across  the 
Tagus,  and,  by  the  valley  of  the  Tagus,  with 
Joseph.  At  this  point  long-standing  quarrels  be- 
tween him  and  his  marshals  broke  out  afresh.  Ney 
refused  to  march  his  division  to  Coimbra  and  was 
deprived  of  his  command.  The  absence  of  so  able  a 
figliier  as  Ney  was  felt  by  the  French  at  Behnonte, 
where  a  sharp  action  drove  them  back  on  SabougaL 
Here  the  premature  attack  of  a  solitary  British  bri- 
gade brought  on  a  general  action.     The  brigade  led 


2611  April  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  S97 

by  Beckwith  took  the  nearest  hill  and  held  it  against 
15.000  Frenchmen.  Around  the  hill  the  fight  raged  fabougS 
for  hoars.  The  crest  was  stormed  several  times  by 
both  sides,  and  several  notable  exploits  were  per- 
formed. When  the  French  were  finally  driven 
down  the  slope,  three  hundred  dead  bodies  were 
found  heaped  up  around  a  howitzer  that  stood  on 
the  top  of  the  hill.  It  was  no  exaggeration  for 
Wellington  to  report — "This  was  one  of  the 
most  glorious  actions  British  troops  were  ever 
engaged    in." 

The  defeat  at  Sabougal  spoiled  Massena's  plans. 
He  felt  compelled  to  continue  his  retreat  to  Ciudad 
Rodrigo  and  Salamanca.  On  April  5,  accordingly, 
the  French  crossed  the  frontier  of  Portugal  and  re- evacuate 

Portugal 

entered  Spain — a  beaten  army.  The  third  invasion 
of  Portugal  had  cost  them  30,000  men.  Welling- 
ton once  more  invested  Almeida  and  Badajos. 

Another  brilliant  two  days'  battle  was  fought  at 
Fuentes  Onoro  on  May  5  and  6,  during  which  ap^g^^gg 
British  battery  of  horse  artillery  cut  its  way  out 
of  a  squadron  of  French  dragoons.  After  the  bat- 
tle, a  French  soldier  named  Tillet  dashed  singly J^''^^|^ 
through  the  British  lines  to  Almeida  and  brought 
them  orders  to  evacuate  that  city,  Bernier  de  Mo- 
rano,  the  French  commandant,  destroyed  all  his 
guns  and  most  of  his  fortifications,  and  then,  with 
his  garrison  of  1,500  men,  broke  through  the  invest- 
ing lines  of  the  British,  numbering  45,000.     Stung  J^eiiingtoa 

o  J  b  '  O  foiled 

by  this  event,  Wellington  issued  a  severe  rebuke  to 
his  officers. 

The  French  reverses  iu  Portugal  were  a  serious 


398  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Spring  1811 

matter  for  Napoleon.  Already  he  had  determiQed 
pit^^^°'^  to  bring  matters  to  a  point  with  Russia.  For  a 
successful  invasion  of  Russia,  as  he  well  knew,  he 
would  need  all  the  military  resources  of  his  empire. 
Further  reinforcements  to  Spain,  therefore,  were  out 
of  the  question.  It  became  desirable,  on  the  con- 
trary, to  withdraw  some  of  the  best  French  troops 
from  the  Peninsula.  As  Metternich  wrote  in  one  of 
his  resumes  of  the  situation  for  Emperor  Francis: 

Met-  "The    Spanish    war    has    recently    taken    a   turn 

teroich's  ^  ■^ 

comment  which  leavcs  France  little  hope  of  a  favorable  ter- 
mination. The  latest  information  speaks  of  the 
very  serious  situation  of  Mass^na's  army.  .  .  . 
Further  defeats  in  Spain  might  be  the  signal  for 
fresh  disturbances  in  other  directions.  .  .  . 
France  is  very  far  from  being  happy.  Under 
an  iron  rule,  an  unexampled  finance,  a  tremen- 
dous load  of  taxes,  an  entire  destruction  of  com- 
merce, the  idea  of  their  internal  condition  would 
be  intolerable  to  the  French  were  it  not  softened 
by  what  appears  like  a  calm  after  prolonged  storms, 
in  comparison  with  other  nations  and  their  heavier 
burdens.  By  his  marriage  with  your  Majesty's 
daughter,  Napoleon  has  found  in  his  sense  the 
guarantee  for  peace  which  he  formerly  intended  to 
find  m  the  overthrow  of  the  Austrian  throne.  Yet 
your  Majesty  will  deign  to  observe  that  the  follow- 
ing all-decisive  question  is  now  presented  to  us: 
Can  Austria  prevent  the  outbreak  of  a  fresh  con- 
tinental war  with  Russia?  To  this  question,  from 
my  innermost  conviction,  I  give  a  decided  'no'." 

Metternich  knew  whereof  he  wrote.  But  a  short 
time  before,  Napoleon  had  proposed  to  him  the 
Verms  of  a  defensive  and  offensive  alliance  against 


1811  Spring:  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  399 

Russia,  and  had  in  conversation  with  him  fore- 
shadowed his  plan  of  campaign  for  the  forthcom- 
ing invasion  of  Russia. 

During  this  interval  an  event  had  occurred  which 
appeared  to  some  a  more  substantial  guarantee  of 
peace  than  any  other.  On  March  20,  Marie  Louise 
was  delivered  of  a  son.  Napoleon  presented  the  in- 
fant to  the  marshals  of  his  empire,  saymg:  "Here  is^rthof 
the  king  of  Rome!"  Elaborate  preparations  hadofRomf 
been  made  for  the  event.  If  it  should  prove  to  be 
a  sou  a  salute  of  one  hundred  and  one  guns  was  to 
be  fired.  Only  twenty-one  shots  were  destined  for 
a  princess.  All  France  awaited  the  issue  with  sus- 
pense. In  Paris  the  vast  crowd  collected  before 
the  Tuileries  remained  in  deep  silence  until  the 
twenty-first  shot  had  been  fired.  When  the  twenty- 
second  boomed  forth  the  crowd  went  wild.  Napo- 
leon himself  said  after  the  birth,  which  had  proved 
very  laborious  for  the  mother,  that  he  "would 
have  preferred  being  present  at  a  battle."  Dr. 
Dubois  told  Napoleon  that  a  second  confinement 
would  result  in  the  death  of  the  mother — a  diag- 
nosis which  was  confuted  eight  years  later.  All 
the  poets  of  France  were  invited  to  write  some- 
thing on  the  occasion.  Excepting  Chateaubriand, 
most  of  them  responded  promptly.  Among  the 
best  productions  were  those  of  Casimir  Delavigne, 
and  Pierre  Lebrun.  Gerard  painted  a  charming 
half-length  portrait  of  the  baby,  and  Prud'hoa 
portrayed  the  imperial  child  asleep  in  the  shrub- 
bery. 

Among   those   who  came  to  congratulate  Napo- 


400  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Summer  1811 

leon  in  person  were  Prince  Poniatovski  of  Poland 
and  King  Joseph  of  Spain.  Both  had  more  seri- 
ous matters  to  bring  to  the  attention  of  the  Em- 
Reiieffor  p6rc>r.  Joseph  told  Napolcon  that  if  the  military 
^p^'°  government  of  Spain  and  the  annexation  of  several 
of  its  provinces  were  not  repudiated,  he  would  feel 
constrained  to  abdicate.  Napoleon  was  induced 
thereby  to  promise  relief.  Joseph  was  advised  to 
convoke  the  Cortes.  Poniatovski  came  to  enter  into 
a  full  discussion  of  Napoleon's  plans  for  the  coming 
invasion  of  Kussia  through  Poland  and  the  part  that 
was  to  be  played  in  the  affair  by  the  Poles.  With 
Poland,  Napoleon,  so  far,  had  played  a  double 
game.  He  had  promised  Alexander  not  to  favor 
any  enterprise  which  might  tend  to  the  re-estab- 
The'^opes  lishment  of  Poland.     On  the  other  hand,  he  won 

of  Poland  ' 

Poniatovski  by  his  plans  for  the  reconstruction  of 
Poland  to  serve  as  a  buffer  state  against  Russia. 
The  loss  of  Galicia  to  Austria  was  to  be  made  up 
•  by  the  restitution  of  the  Illyrian  provinces,  while 
the  King  of  Saxony  was  to  be  consoled  in  some 
other  way  for  the  loss  of  "Warsaw. 

By  autumn,  1811,  it  was  plain  to  most  men  that 
%vith  war  with  Russia  was  on  the  cards.     Shortly  after 

Bussia 

Napoleon's  seizure  of  Oldenburg  the  Czar  had  re- 
marked to  Caulaincourt,  the  French  ambassador  at 
St.  Petersburg:  "Tell  your  Emperor  that  the  earth 
here  trembles  beneath  my  feet.  Tell  him  that  here 
in  my  own  empire  he  has  rendered  my  position 
intolerable  by  his  violation  of  treaties.  Transmit 
to  him  from  me  this  candid  and  final  declaration: 
If  once  the  war  be  fairly  entered  upon,  either  he, 


iSliAutumu  NINETEENTH   CENTURV  401 

Napoleon,  or  I,  Alexander,  must  lose  our  crown." 
Napoleon    thuB   commented    on    these   preliminary  andlr's 
pourparlers  in   later  life:   "Alexander  and  I   were  ^'^"^  ^°^ 
in  the  condition  of  two  boasters,  who  without  wish- 
ing to  fight  were  trying  hard  to  frighten  each  other. 
1   should    most   willingly    have   maintained   peace,  Napoleon's 

commeat 

surrounded  and  overwhelmed  as  I  was  by  unfavor- 
able circumstances.  All  I  have  since  learned  con- 
vinces me  that  Alexander  was  even  less  desirous 
of  war  than  myself."  Financially  considered,  the 
war  was  the  worst  thing  that  could  happen  to  botli 
countries,  yet  neither  sovereign  could  bring  himself 
to  back  down. 

"Toward  the  end  of  the  year  1811,"  says  the 
Duke  Gaeta,  at  that  time  acting  finance  minister 
of  France,  "I  availed  myself  of  the  liberty  which 
the  Emperor  had  always  granted  me  in  our  private  of  F^aiM» 
conversations  to  express  to  him  my  solicitude.  'A 
new  war,'  1  said,  'conducted  at  the  distance  of  eighfc 
hundred  leagues,  will  impose  upon  us  a  great  ex- 
pense, of  which  but  a  small  portion  can  be  defrayed 
by  that  distant  country,  which  offers  no  resources. 
What,  then,  must  become  of  the  present  state  of 
our  finances,  particularly  should  the  events  of  the 
war  prove  disastrous?' 

"'You  speak  thus,'  answered  Napoleon,  'be- 
cause you  do  not  fully  comprehend  our  true  politi- 
cal situation.  1  have  strong  reason  to  believe  that 
Austria,  who  will  now  march  with  us,  soon  will 
march  against  us.  .  .  .  I  cannot  refrain  from  pre- 
paring for  war  without  at  the  same  time  neglect- 
ing to  adopt  measures  to  keep  its  ravages  at  a 
distance.  Thus  I  am  driven  to  obey  a  necessity 
which  my  position  unhappily  exacts,  that  I  should 
be  now  the  fox,  and  now  the  lion.'  " 


402  A    HISTORY    OF    THE 


Autumn  1811 


With  two  world  powers  tbus  inevitably  drifting 
into  war,  nothing  remained  for  the  other  nations 
but  to  take  sides  quickly  and  fall  into  line.  The 
various  States  of  Lower  and  Middle  Germany  had 
long  ago  thrown  in  their  lot  with  Napoleon.  For 
aiu^'®°°'^  Austria,  Metternich  struck  a  bargain  that  she  was 
to  aid  France  only  as  an  independent  ally,  on 
Napoleon's  promise  that  the  Illyrian  provinces 
should  be  restored  to  her.  Prussia  wavered  for  a 
while  between  Russia  and  France,  but  Russia  had 
little  use  for  a  foreign  alliance,  since  it  was  intended 
from  the  start  to  fight  a  purely  defensive  campaign 
on  Russian  soil.  Napoleon,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
in  no  mood  to  bargain  for  something  which  he  could 
obtain  by  force.  Late  in  1811  he  moved  an  army 
Coercion  ^^om  the  Rhine  toward  the  Prussian  frontier,  and 
of  Prussia  ^^  ^^^  same  time  he  raised  the  strength  of  the 
French  garrisons  on  the  Oder.  With  Prussia  thus 
at  his  mercy.  Napoleon  dictated  the  terms  of  his 
proposed  alliance,  which  meant,  in  short,  unquali- 
fied submission,  and  the  despatch  of  an  auxiliary 
force  of  20,000  Prussians  to  be  incorporated  in  the 
French  army.  As  Fyffe  has  expressed  it  in  his 
"History  of  Modern  Europe": 

"The  sovereign  who  was  about  to  be  attacked  by 
Napoleon  and  the  sovereigns  who  sent  their  troops 
Spirit  to  Napoleon's  support  perfectly  understood  one  an- 
aiiiance  other's  position.  The  Prussian  corps,  watched  and 
outnumbered  by  the  French,  might  have  to  fight  the 
Russians  because  they  could  not  help  it:  the  Aus- 
trians,  directed  by  their  own  commanders,  would  do 
no  serious  harm  to  the  Russians  as  long  as  the  Rus- 
sians did  no  harm  to  them.     Should  the  Czar  succeed 


1811  Autumn  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  403 

in  giving  a  good  account  of  his  adversary,  he  would 
have  no  difficulty  in  coming  to  a  settlement  with 
his  adversary's  forced  allies." 

When  it  was  suggested  to  Bernadotte  that  he 
should  furnish  a  quota  of  eight  thousand  Swedish 
soldiers  to  Napoleon,  the  temper  of  the  new-made 
king   was    early   shown.      "Sweden,    not    beinsr    a  ?«'^oa'^otta 

^  >)  '  o         defiant 

member  of  the  Rhenish  confederation,"  he  replied, 
"is  under  no  obligation  to  furnish  a  quota  of  troops. 
Sweden  maintains  no  more  soldiers  than  are  neces- 
sary for  her  own  security." 

Napoleon  forthwith  moved  an  army  corps  north- 
ward to  threaten  Scandinavia.  While  western  Eu- 
rope was  thus  once  more  drifting  into  a  general 
war,  an  extraordinary  act  was  perpetrated  in  the 
East.  The  threatening  growth  of  power  of  the 
Mamelukes  in  Egypt  was  broken  by  a  high- 
handed measure  similar  to  that  whereby  Peter 
the  Great  broke  the  backbone  of  his  notorious 
bodyguard,  the  Strelitzi.  The  reigning  Khedive 
of  Egypt,  Mohammed  Ali,  some  time  previous  to 
this  had  made  his  peace  with  the  Mamelukes  onE-y"pt^^ 
the  stipulation  that  the  whole  corps  should  serve 
as  his  household  cavalry  at  his  palace  in  Cairo. 
The  greater  part  of  them  did  so,  but  nevertheless 
they  connived  with  the  Pasha  of  Acre  to  overthrow 
Mohammed  Ali  should  he  fail  in  his  war  with  the 
Wachabites.  The  plot  was  discovered  by  the  Khe- 
dive and  was  foiled  in  a  manner  characteristic  of 
the  Orient.  The  Mamelukes  were  bidden  to  attend 
a  solemn  festival  on  the  day  when  the  Khedive's 
son  was  invested  with  the  command  of  the  espedi« 


404  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  ftimmer  1811 

tioD  against  the  Wacbabites.     The  Mamelukes  were 

placed   between   the  vanguard   of  Turkish  infantry 

of  the        and   a    rearguard    of    household    cavalry.      At   the 

Mamelukes 

instant  when  the  infantry  had  entered  the  citadel, 
and  the  Mamelukes  were  passing  between  the  inner 
and  outer  ramparts,  the  gates  were  suddenly  closed. 
The  Turkish  troops  fired  on  the  helpless  horsemen 
until  most  were  slain.  Those  that  surrendered  were 
beheaded.  Thus  the  flower  of  the  Egyptian  cavalry 
was  destroyed,  and  Mohammed  rested  more  secure 
on  his  viceregal  throne. 
South  In  America,  during  those  days,  a  new  spirit  was 

America 

restive  abroad.  Two  men  had  come  to  South  A{nerica  to 
help  the  patriot  cause.  One  was  Francisco  Miran- 
da, the  old  conspirator  who  had  served  with  La- 
Miranda  fayette  under  Washington,  and  had  commanded  a 
regiment  under  Dumouriez  in  the  campaigns  of 
Valmy  and  Jemappes.  He  soon  made  common 
cause  with  Bolivar  in  Venezuela.  The  other  was 
s*n Marti.i  San  Martin,  an  Argentinian,  who  had  likewise 
learned  the  trade  of  war  in  Europe,  and  who  has 
been  styled  by  the  foremost  South  American  his- 
torian as  the  "greatest  of  the  Creoles  of  the  New 
World."  When  San  Martin  returned  to  Argentina 
in  1811,  he  had  some  reputation  as  a  soldier.  Eight 
days  after  his  arrival  he  was  intrusted  with  the  task 
of  raising  a  squadron  of  cavalry.  Tiiis  was  the 
origin  of  the  famous  South  American  regiment  of 
mounted     mounted  grenadiers,  which  fought  in  so  many  bat- 

greuadiers     ,  ,      ,        ^  i.    •      i  j 

ties  of  the  South  American  war  of  independence, 
and  which  gave  to  America  nineteen  generals  and 
more  than  two  hundred  officers.      San  Martin  and 


1811  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  405 

his   friend   Alvear   founded    the    secret   society  of 
the  Revolution  known  as  the  Lautaro  Lodge. 

In  Caracas,  similarly,  Bolivar  was  the  leading BoUvm 
spirit  of  a  patriotic  society,  which,  like  the  Jacobin 
Club  of  France,  practically  controlled  the  destinies 
of  the  revolution.  The  society  held  its  first  meeting 
on  July  4,  1811.  In  a  fiery  speech,  Bolivar  called 
upon  them  to  lay  the  foundation  stone  of  South 
American  liberty.  The  next  day  the  Congress  of 
Caracas  adopted  Bolivar's  resolution  and  Venezuela 
was  declared  a  republic.  The  declaration  of  inde-  indepen- 
pendence  was  modelled  on  that  of  the  United  States  Venezuela 
of  North  America.  It  was  declared  that  "the 
united  provinces  of  Venezuela  are  and  ought  to 
be  by  act  and  right,  free,  sovereign  and  indepen- 
dent States,  and  they  are  absolved  from  any  sub- 
mission and  dependence  to  the  throne  of  Spain.'* 
On  the  same  day  the  Congress  adopted  the  tricolor 
flag  of  Miranda  as  the  emblem  of  new  liberty. 

About  the  same  time  that  Venezuela  was  declared 
a  republic,  a  new  British  commissioner,  Mr.  Foster, 
arrived  in  Washington  to  settle  up  the  "Chesa- 
peake" affair  and  enter  a  formal  protest  against  the^^-^l** 
American  seizure  of  west  Florida — "as  an  attempt  reizure 
contrary  to  every  principle  of  public  justice,  faith 
and  national  honor."  His  remonstrances  were  re- 
ceived in  a  Pickwickian  sense.  On  July  6,  Foster 
wrote  to  Wellesley:  "It  was  with  real  pain,  my 
lord,  that  I  was  forced  to  listen  to  arguments  of 
the  most  profligate  nature;  to  wit,  that  other  na- 
tions were  not  so  scrupulous,  that  the  United 
States  showed  sufficient  forbearance  in  not  assist- 


406 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE 


Summer  1811 


"Little 

Bell" 
affair 


Damages 
lone 


ing  the  insurgents  of  South  America,  and  looking 
to  their  own  interests  in  the  present  situation  of 
the  country." 

Unfortunately  for  any  settlement  of  the  "Chesa- 
peake" affair,  another  similar  outrage  had  just  oc- 
curred on  the  high  seas,  in  which  the  Americans 
were  the  aggressors.  On  Maj'-  16,  Commodore  Rod- 
gers  of  the  American  frigate  "President,"  carrying 
forty-four  guns,  overhauled  the  British  corvette-of- 
war,  "Little  Belt,"  carrying  twenty  guns.  She  was 
believed  to  be  the  "Guerriere,"  and  was  approached 
for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  whether  an  Ameri- 
can sailor  named  Digio  was  on  board.  At  nightfall 
the  two  ships  came  within  hail,  with  the  American 
coming  to,  close  to  windward,  a  manoeuvre  which 
British  captains  were  disposed  to  resent.  After  an 
ineffectual  hail,  both  ships  fired  upon  one  another, 
each  claiming  afterward  that  the  other  had  fired 
first.  A  series  of  broadsides  from  the  "President" 
disabled  the  British  corvette.  Captain  Bingham 
of  the  "Little  Belt"  reported  afterward:  "I  was 
obliged  to  desist  from  firing,  as,  the  ship  falling 
off,  no  gun  would  bear.  Not  a  brace  nor  a  bow- 
line left,  upper  works  all  shot  away;  starboard 
pump  also.  I  have  to  lament  the  loss  of  thirty- 
two  men  killed  and  wounded,  among  whom  was 
the  master."  The  "President's"  loss  was  one  boy 
wounded,  and  some  damage  to  the  rigging. 

So  it  came  that  Foster  found  himself  compelled 
to  demand  redress  for  the  "Little  Belt"  affair,  rather 
than  to  offer  such  for  the  "Chesapeake"  outrage. 
President   M:idison    showed    himself    little   inclined 


1811  Summer  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  407 

to  eater  into  a  discussion  of  either,  unless  the 
British  restrictions  on  American  shipping  were 
withdrawn.     The  more  Napoleon   played  fast  and  AmericaD 

'■  ^  policy 

loose  with  his  own  promises  to  suspend  operations 
of  the  continental  blockade  in  favor  of  the  United 
States,  the  firmer  was  the  stand  of  the  American 
government  toward  England.  At  last  when  Napo- 
leon issued  a  decree  admitting  American  ships  to 
French  ports,  though  holding  to  the  American  seiz- 
ures already  made.  President  Madison  and  his  new 
Secretary  of  State,  Monroe,  turned  completely  against 
England.  As  in  former  times  a  petty  fight  against 
Indians,  far  in  the  American  wilderness,  began  a 
convulsion  which  was  to  end  in  full-fledged  war. 
It  was  a  favorite  saying  of  General  Harrison,  Gov- 

Attitude  of 

ernor  of  the  Indian   Territory  of  those  days,  that '■tie  Indians 
"the  conduct  of  the  Indians  was  a  sure  thermom- 
eter for  the  chances  of  war  or  peace  between  Eng- 
lishmen and  Americans." 

William  Henry  Harrison  had  been  appointed 
Governor  of  the  "Indian  Territory"  in  1800,  It 
then  consisted  of  two  tracts,  one  on  the  Ohio  and 
the  other  at  Vincennes  on  the  Wabash,  and  be 
tween  these  there  was  a  hundred  miles  of  wil- 
derness. The  population  grew  from  twenty-five 
hundred  in  1800  to  as  many  thousand  in  1811. 
Westward  and  northwestward  stretched  the  Indian 
country  to  the  lakes  and  the  Mississippi,  broken 
only  by  military  posts  at  Fort  Wayne  and  Chicago, 
over  which  roamed  5,000   Indians. 

Tecumseh,  the  great  one-eyed  leader  of  the  In-Tecumsea 
dians,   gathered  his  warriors  about  him  at  Green- 


408 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


Bummer  1811 


Harrison 


Tille,  Ohio.  He  aimed  to  build  up  an  Indian  con- 
federacy which  should  assume  joint  ownership  of 
all  Indian  lands.  With  his  brothers  he  established 
himself  on  the  Tippecanoe  Creek  where  it  joins  the 
Wabash.  From  this  point  they  could  by  water  reach 
Vincennes,  Fort  Dearborn  (Chicago),  Fort  Wayne 
and  Detroit,  and  the  waters  of  the  Ohio  and  Mis- 
sissippi. 

Harrison's  various  transactions  exasperated  the 
Indians,  and  they  turned  to  the  British  for  help. 
Alarming  reports  concerning  the  Indians  reached 
Vinceunes.  Harrison  saw  that  an  Indian  war  was 
inevitable,  and  that  his  safety  lay  in  crushing  the 
Indians  before  the  British  could  come  to  their  aid. 
Oq  August  12  Tecumseh,  at  Harrison's  request, 
came  to  Vincennes  for  a  conference.  Tecumseh 
said:  "You  are  constantly  driving  the  red  people, 
Vinceunes  ^^j^  ^t  last  you  wiU  drive  them  into  the  great  lake, 
where  they  cannot  either  stand  or  walk." 

Later  in  1811  Tecumseh,  with  200  warriors,  came 
to  Vincennes  for  another  interview,  and  spent  two 
days  expostulating  with  Harrison.  A  few  days 
afterward  Tecumseh  passed  down  the  Wabash  on 
his  diplomatic  errand  with  the  Indian  tribes  in 
the  south.  Immediate  action  before  his  return  was 
urged  on  Harrison,  and  he  spent  the  next  week  rais- 
ing  troops.  In  September  Harrison  sent  his  force. 
consisting  of  300  of  the  Fourth  Regulars  and  six 
or  seven  hundred  volunteers,  to  a  point  in  the  new 
purchase,  sixty-five  miles  above  Vincennes,  where 
he  budt  a  small  wooden  fort,  called  after  his  name. 
His  outposts  were  fired  on  and  the  war  was  begun. 


Confer- 
ence of 


Fort 
Harrison 


1811  Autumn  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  i09 

On  October  28  Harrison  broke  camp  and  marched 
up  the  river,  fifty  miles  from  Tippecanoe  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Vermilion,  within  one  and  one-haif 
miles  of  the  Indian  town.  There  the  soldiers  en- 
camped. Early  the  next  morning  a  shot  was  heard  i^f*J^®°' 
from  the  sentinel  at  the  farthest  angle  of  the  camp.  *^°*^ 
In  an  instant  came  the  Indian  yell,  and  the  soldiers 
were  shot  down  by  their  camp  fires.  The  Ameri- 
cans received  the  attack  in  good  form.  At  the 
broken  angle  the  Indians  had  not  strength  to  fol- 
low up  their  advantage,  and  the  Americans  at  day- 
break drove  them  into  the  swamp.  The  fight  lasted 
two  hours.  Harrison's  total  loss  was  188,  of  whom 
61  were  killed,  and  the  bodies  of  38  Indians  re- 
mained on  the  field.  The  number  of  Indians  in  1 
the  battle  was  probably  not  more  than  400.     Te-  ' 

cumseh,  when  he  learned  of  it,  deplored  the  en 
counter.  Tbe  battle  of  Tippecanoe  gave  great 
satisfaction  throughout  the  West.  Harrison  re- 
ceived the  official  thanks  of  Kentucky,  Illinois, 
and  Indiana,  but  in  New  England  the  aggressions 
against  the  Indians  were  deprecated. 

When  a  deputation  of  eighty  Indians  with  Tecum- 
seh  visited  Harrison  at  Vincennes,  and  asked  leave  premature 

TTT       1  •  •      •  T I  1    Intlian  war 

to  go  to  Washington,  permission  was  readily  granted, 
but  Tecumseh's  Indian  braves  could  not  be  held  in 
check.  Hostilities  broke  out  all  along  the  border, 
settlers  were  shot  at  Fort  Dearborn,  at  Fort  Madisoa 
on  the  Mississippi,  at  Vincennes,  and  within  a  few 
miles  of  the  Ohio.  Harrison  reported:  "Most  of 
the  citizens  of  the  country   have  abandoned  their 

farms  and  taken  refuge  in  temporary  forts."     YbC 

XTXlh  Century— Vol.  1—18 


410  ^    HISTORY    OF    THE  Winter  18U 

the  American  Government  was  slow  to  act.  Te- 
cumseh,  on  the  other  hand,  waited  for  the  inevi- 
table outbreak  of  hostilities  with  Great  Britain  to 
throw  his  lot  in  with  the  Englishmen.  In  winter 
the  war  fever  of  1811  was  at  its  height.  Madison, 
Monroe  and  Gallatin  were  generally  supposed  to 
be  aiming  for  some  diplomatic  makeshift  rather 
than  open  rupture.  The  active  leaders  in  Con- 
gress were  young  men.  Clay,  Calhoun,  Lowndes, 
Williams,  Grundy,  l^orter  and  Johnson  were  all 
under  forty.  They  were  bent  on  "creating  a  na- 
tion," as  the}'^  expressed  it,  by  carrying  the  Ameri- 
can flag  up  to  Canada  and  down  to  Key  West. 
Calhoun's  speecii  of  December  12  was,  perhaps, 
the  best  made  in  the  long  debate  on  war.  A 
famous  sentence  was:  "Protection  (of  the  citizen) 

American  ^  ■' 

war  fever  j^^^j  patriotism  are  reciprocal.  This  is  the  road  all 
great  nations  have  trod."  Finally  a  resolution  au- 
thorizing naval  vessels  to  arm  was  adopted  by  97 
against  22  votes. 

Kieist  About  this  time,  Herman  von  Kleist,  one  of  Ger- 

many's most  brilliant  poets,  put  an  end  to  his  ca- 
reer. Had  he  waited  but  a  little  while  longer,  the 
poet  might  have  lived  to  see  the  fulfilment  of  his 
dearest  patriotic  hopes.  Born  at  Frankfurt  on  the 
Oder,  Kleist  served  as  an  officer  in  the  Prussian 
campaigns  on  the  Ehine.  In  1803  he  brought  out 
the  romantic  tragedy  "The  Schroffensteins,"  fol- 
lowed presently  by  a  mystic  version  of  Plauius  and 
Molidre's  "Amphitryon."  While  in  Switzerland 
he  began  his  classic,  "The  Broken  Pitcher,"  one 
of  the  best  comedies  in  German  verse  written  dur* 


His  works 


1811  winter  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  411 

ing  the  nineteenth  century.  In  Koenigsbcrg,  Kleist 
wrote  his  famous  short  story,  "Michael  Kohlhaas," 
a  stirring  psychological  study  of  the  effects  of 
wrong  on  a  deeply  emotional  character.  During 
the  war  of  1806,  Kleist  returned  to  the  colors  and 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French  as  a  prisoner  of^^gp® 
war.  On  his  liberation,  in  1808,  he  published  the 
play  "Kaethchen  von  Heilbronn,"  which  in  operatic 
form  was  destined  to  achieve  a  great  success  some 
seventy-five  years  later.  Kleist's  patriotic  poems 
against  the  French  soon  got  him  into  trouble.  The 
production  of  a  suggestive  drama  on  the  fight  of 
the  ancient  Germans  against  the  Romans  was  for- 
bidden in  Germany,  as  was  his  Prussian  soldier- 
play,  "The  Prince  of  Homburg."  On  the  revolt 
of  Austria  against  Napoleon,  the  poet  tried  once 
more  to  plunge  into  the  whirl  of  war,  but  he  ar- 
rived on  the  field  of  Aspern  only  after  that  battle 
had  tu~rned  against  the  Austrians.  For  a  while  he 
seemed  to  cherish  a  wild  project  of  assassinating 
Napoleon,  but  at  last  he  returned  to  Prussia  an 
imbittered  man.  An  unhappy  love  affair  sickened  ^^^^^ 
him  of  life.  On  November  21,  Kleist  shot  himself  ""'*'''*^ 
on  the  shore  of  the  Wansee  near  Potsdam.  But 
for  Tieck's  efforts  the  literary  remains  of  this  great- 
est of  Prussia's  early  poets  would  not  have  beea 
preserved. 


412  A   HmTOHY   OF   THE  Jan.lSia 


1812 

i 

WHILE  the  prospect  of  war  between    tbo 
United   States  and   Great    Britain    held 
/  public  attention  in  America,  the  minds 

/  of  most  Englishmen  were  fixed  on  Spain  and  the 
war  with  France.     The  French  armies  of  Marmont 
,;^        and  Soult,  67,000  strong,  lay  within  touch  of  each 
other,    barring    Wellington's   entrance   into   Spain. 

Situation  '  o  o  r 

Pen^uia-'^'^^  allied  forces  under  Wellington^  numbered 
35,000,  badly  wasted  from  sickness  and  insuffi- 
cient supplies.  In  this  extremity  Wellington 
was  meditating  a  leap  upon  the  great  frontier 
fortress  of  Ciudad  R  drigo,  the  French  base  of 
supplies  in  the  province  of  Salamanca.  Siege 
guns  were  collected  for  the  ostensible  purpose  of 
fortifying  Almeida,  but  the  guns  were  secretly 
transshipped  and  brought  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Douro.  Early  in  January,  when  the  French  had 
Weiiine-  been  lulled  into  security,  Wellington,  to  use  Na* 
ton  8  ad-  pjgj-'s  cxprcssive  phrase,  "instantly  jumped  with 
both   feet   upon   Ciudad   Rodrigo." 

The  siege  began  on  January  8  in  bitter  cold 
weather.  The  British  had  to  encamp  on  the  side 
of  the  Agueda  furth^-st  from  the  city.  On  the  first 
night,  Colonel  Colborne,  afterward  Lord  Seton,  led 
the  three  light  divitsiuus  aguiubt  the  redoubt  that 


Tanoe 


1812 Jan.  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  413 

crowned  the  Great  Teson.  The  accidental  dis- 
charge of  a  French  hand-grenade  burst  the  gate 
open,  and  the  attacking  party  swept  through  it.  siegreof 
The  fight  lasted  only  twenty  minutes,  but  at  the^^''^^'^^ 
end  of  it  every  Frenchman  within  the  redoubt  was 
killed,  wounded  or  a  captive.  For  ten  days  a 
desperate  artillery  duel  was  kept  up.  The  French 
brought  fifty  of  their  guns  to  bear  on  the  English 
lines,  and  thus  held  them  off  amid  wintry  weather 
until  Marmont,  with  his  relieving  forces,  came  with- 
in four  marches  of  the  besieged  city.  On  the  eve 
of  January  20  Wellington  issued  the  general  order: 
"Ciudad  Rodrigo  must  be  stormed  this  evening."  assault 

^  °  °        ordered 

The  third  division,  under  General  Mackinnon,  was 
to  attack  the  chief  breach  with  a  forlorn  hope  led 
by  Ensign  Mackie.  The  smaller  breach  was  a  gap 
twenty  feet  wide,  to  the  left  of  the  larger  one.  This 
was  to  be  attacked  by  the  light  division,  under  Crau- 
f ord,  its  smaller  party  of  twenty-five  men,  being  led 
by  Garwood,  and  its  storming  party  by  George  Na-'"^P^"^®^ 
pier,  the  brother  of  the  historian.  General  Pack, 
with  a  Portuguese  brigade,  was  to  make  a  feint 
on  the  eastern  part,  while  another  attack  was  made 
on  the  south  front  by  more  Portuguese  troops  and  a 
picked  company  of  the  Eighty-third  regiment  of  the 
line.  In  the  storming  party  were  the  Earl  of  March, 
afterward  Duke  of  Richmond,  the  Prince  of  Orange 
and  Lord  Somerset,  afterward  Lord  Raglan,  all  vol- 
unteers unknown  to  the  Commander-in-Chief. 

Shortly  after  seven  in  the  evening,  the  fortress  waa 
assaulted  from  all  four  sides  at  once.  As  Napier  has 
described  it: 


414  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Jan.  1813 

"The  men  were  walking  on  fire!     Yet  the  attack 
Napier's     could  not  be  denied.      The  Frenchmen — shooting, 

description  o» 

Stabbing,  yelling — were  driven  behind  their  in- 
trenchments.  There  the  fire  of  the  houses  com- 
manding the  breach  came  to  their  help,  and  they 
made  a  gallant  stand.  None  would  go  back  on 
either  side,  and  yet  the  British  could  not  get  for- 
ward. Men  and  officers  falling  in  heaps  choked 
up  the  passage,  which  from  minute  to  minute  was 
raked  with  grape  from  two  guns  flanking  the  top  of 
the  breach  at  the  distance  of  a  few  yards.  Thus 
striving,  and  trampling  alike  upon  the  dead  and 
the  wounded,  these  brave  men  maintained  the 
combat." 

Crauford,  with  whom  Napier's  brother  was  a 
favorite,  gave  to  that  officer  the  command  of  the 
The  lesser  assault  ou  the  Icsscr  breach.  Wellington  himself 
came  to  the  trench  and  showed  Napier  and  Col- 
borne,  through  the  gloom  of  the  early  night,  the 
exact  position  of  the  breach.  A  staff  ofiicer,  look- 
ing on,  said,  "Your  men  have  not  loaded.  Why 
don't  you  make  them  load?"  Napier  replied,  "If 
we  don't  do  the.  business  with  the  bayonet  we  shall 
not  doit  at  all."  "Let  him  alone,"  said  Welling- 
ton; "let  him  go  his  own  way!"  Picton  had 
adopted  the  same  grim  policy  with  the  third  di- 
vision. As  each  regiment  passed  him,  filing  into 
the  trenches,  his  injunction  was,  "No  powder! 
We'll  do  the  thing  with  the  could  iron." 

Half  way  up,  Napier's  right  arm  was  smashed  by 
a  grape  shot.  As  he  lay  bleeding,  he  shouted: 
"Push  on,  my  men,  and  give  them  the  bayonet!" 
Crauford,  the  famous  leader  of  the  light  division, 


1812  Feb.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  416 

was  killed,  and  so  was  Mackinnon,   the  leader  of 
the  Highland  brigade  that  stormed  the  great  breach.  craufo?d 
With  them  fell  seven  hundred  officers  and  men.    Atkl'nnon'"' 
last,  near  midnight,  Ciudad  Rodrigo  was  won,  when 
the  French  commandant  had  to  hand  his  sword  to 
the  beardless  British  subaltern,  who,  bleeding  from 

'  '  °  Fall  of 

a  staggering  wound,  had  brought  his  forlorn  hope  C'^"^'|.^^ 
into  the  heart  of  the  citadel.     In  all,  the  capture  of 
Ciudad  Rodrigo  lip,d  cost  Wellington  twelve  hun- 
"lired"  men-.-^'— — ~  ' 

-^'■'   Allison  has  said  in  his  "History  of  Modern  Eu- 

/       rope"  that  "with  the  fall  of  Ciudad  Rodrigo  began 

the  fall  of  the  French  empire."     As  a  matter  of 

^"lact  it  was  the  first  of  that  swift  following 
series  of  strokes  which  drove  the  French  eagles 
out  of    Spain,  while  Napoleon  was  facing  disaster 

^__^Jja,Jlussia.  From  the  capture  of  Ciudad  Rodrigo,  Advanceof 
Wellington  pushed  on  to  Badajos,  the  rocky  for- *^  ^  °^''' 
tress  standing  on  the  last  spur  of  the  Toledo  range, 
which  twice  already  had  been  assailed  in  vain  by 
the  English.  It  was  now  held  by  a  resolute  gar- 
rison of  five  thousand  men  under  General  Phillip- 
son,  a  Scotch  Jacobite,  with  a  genius  for  defence. 
Even  without  such  defenders,  Badajos  was  an  all 
but  impregnable  stronghold.  The  river  Guadiana, 
five  hundred  yards  wide,  served  as  a  natural  moat 
on  the  north,  with  the  river  Rivilla  on  the  west. 
On  their  banks  towered  five  great  fortified  outposts 
— Christobal,  Saint  Roque,  Picarina,  Pardeleras  and 
a  fortified  bridge-head  across  the  Guadiana.  Wel- 
lington brought  up  18,000  men  for  the  siege.  Most 
of  them  were  veterans  led  by  young  officers.     The 


416 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


March  1812 


Sie?e  of 
Badajos 


A  night 
attack 


British 
repulsed 


A  sevea- 
fold  as- 
sault 


siege  was  begun  in  March,  and  lasted  three  weeks. 
It  was  waged  in  the  stormiest  weather,  with  the 
rivers  steadily  rising,  and  under  a  continuous  can- 
nonade from  the  ramparts.  The  losses  on  the  Brit- 
ish side  averaged  250  men  for  each  day.  On  the 
eighth  night  of  the  siege,  Wellington  ordered  a 
night  attack  on  the  Picarina. 

Napier  tells  how  "the  axmen  of  the  light  divi- 
sion, compassing  the  fort  like  prowling  wolves,"  dis- 
covered the  gate  at  the  rear,  and  so  broke  into  the 
fort.  The  engineer  officer  who  led  the  attack  de- 
clared that  the  place  would  never  have  been  taken 
had  it  not  been  for  the  coolness  of  these  men  in 
absolutely  walking  round  the  fort  to  its  rear,  dis- 
covering the  gate,  and  hewing  it  down  under  a 
tempest  of  bullets.  The  assault  lasted  an  hour, 
and  in  that  period,  out  of  the  five  hundred  men 
who  attacked,  no  less  than  three  hundred,  with 
nineteen  officers,   were  killed  or  wounded! 

Then  followed  two  weeks  of  furious  trench  fight- 
ing, during  which  the  British  lost  almost  as  heavily 
as  in  the  actual  assaults.  Of  these  days  Captain 
MacCarthy,  of  the  Fiftieth  British  Infantry,  has  left 
a  curious  monograph,  full  of  tragi-comic  incidents. 
On  the  night  of  April  6,  Wellington,  who  had  a 
fondness  for  night  attacks,  ordered  a  general  as- 
sault from  seven  sides.  On  the  extreme  right,  Pic- 
ton,  with  the  third  division,  had  to  cross  the  Ri villa 
and  scale  the  high  walls  of  the  citadel.  On  the  side 
of  Budajos,  the  fifth  division,  under  Leith,  was  to 
attack  on  the  strong  bastion  of  St.  Vincente,  where 
the  glacis  was  mined,  the  ditch  deep  and  the  scarp 


J812Apra  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  417 

thirty  feet  high.  At  ten  o'clock  the  assault  began. 
MacCarthj  says  we  can  only  picture  the  scene  by  c^thy's 
''supposing  that  all  the  stars,  planets,  and  meteors  *^^*^"'^ '°° 
of  the  firmament,  with  innumeraoie  moons  emitting 
smaller  ones  in  their  course,  were  descending  on 
the  heads  of  the  besiegers."  MacCarthy  himself, 
it  is  reported,  addressed  his  commander  with  the 
exultant  remark,  '"Tis  a  glorious  night,  sir — a  glo- 
rious night!"  and,  rushing  forward  to  the  head  of 
the  stormers,  shouted,  "Up  with  the  ladders  1" 
The  five  ladders  were  raised,  the  troops  swarmed 
up,  an  officer  leading;  but  the  first  files  were  at 
once  overwhelmed  by  cannon  fire,  and  the  ladders 
slipped  into  the  angle  of  the  abutments.  "Dread- 
ful their  fall,"  records  MacCarthy  of  the  slaugh- 
tered stormers,  "and  appalling  their  appearance  at 
daylight." 

With  but  one  ladder  left   standing,  the   British .pj^g^j^^^ 
scaled  the  battlements  of  the  citadel,  one  by  one,  ^^^^^^ 
in  a  hand-to-hand  fight  against  heavy  odds. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  city,  the  French  garrison 
succeeded  in  beating  off  their  assailants  from  the 
open  breaches.  Every  time  the  British  renewed 
the  attacks  their  ranks  were  mowed  down  by  hun- 
dreds. The  baffled  British  soldiers  became  so  stub- 
born that  they  would  not  obey  the  bugle  call  from 
the  reserve  line,  blowing  to  the  retreat,  and  they 
struck  their  own  buglers  who  tried  to  repeat  it.  At 
last  the  sullen  soldiers  discovered  a  likely  spot  in 
the  ramparts,  and  by  a  couple  of  ladders  swept  into 
the  bastion.  Swarming  through  the  streets  they 
met  the  men  of  Picton's  division  descending  from 


418  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Spring I8t3 

the  citadel.  Caught  between  two  fires,  the  French 
BaUajoa  ***poured  from  the  ramparts  and  were  carried  through 
the  rear  gates.  In  the  wild  night  assault  more  than 
five  thousand  men  fell  on  both  sides — but  Badajos 
was  won. 

Even  more  sullen,  though  unrelieved  by  such 
brilliant  exploits  as  marked  the  dash  of  Badajos, 
was  the  siege  of  San  Sebastian,  the  fall  of  which 
finally   cleared   the   way  for   Wellington's   famous 

Fall  of  San  -^  ''  ° 

Sebastian  march  through  Spain.  Spurred  on  by  this  vic- 
tory, the  British  army  crossed  the  Agueda  and 
marched  for  Salamanca  three  days  before  Napo- 
leon crossed    the  Niemen  on  his  way  to  Moscow. 

Assassi-         In  England,  during  this   time,  the  assassination 

nation  of  &  »  &  ) 

Perceval  Qf  Perccval  by  a  maniac  named  Bellingham,  m  the 
House  of  Commons,  had  brought  about  a  change 
of  Ministry,  though  not  of  parties.  Another 
Tory  Ministry  was  returned  under  the  guidance 
of  the  Earl  of  Liverpool,  a  leader  of  uncertain 
strength,  but  well  qualified  to  hold  discordant  col- 
leagues together.  Thanks  to  their  continued  sup- 
Ministry  of  port,  Wellington  and  his  army  m  Spain  were  soon 
enabled  to  reap  the  fruits  of  their  dear-bought 
victories.  As  Green  has  said  in  his  "History  of 
the  English  People:" 

"The  death  of  Perceval  marked  more  than  a 
mere  change  of  Ministry.  From  that  moment,  the 
developrneut  of  English  life  began  to  take  its  natu- 
ral course  again.  The  increase  of  wealth  was  indeed 
enormous.  In  spite  ot  the  serious  blow  which  com- 
merce received  from  the  qii;irrel  with  Ainerica,  En- 
glish exports  had  grown  to  be  nearly  double  what 


3812  Spring  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  419 

they  were  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  Manufac- 
turers profited  by  the  great  discoveries  of  Watt  and 
Arkwrigbt,  and  the  consumption  of  raw  cotton  ia 
the  mills  of  Lancashire  rose  during  the  same  period 
from  fifty  to  a  hundred  millions  of  pounds.  .  .  . 
So  long  as  Perceval  lived,  efforts  at  reform  had 
been  vain,  but  under  Lord  Liverpool,  the  advanc- 
ing strength  of  a  more  liberal  sentiment  in  the  na- 
tion was  brought  to  a  head  by  Canning.  Catholic 
emancipation  became  an  open  question  in  the  Cabi- 
net itself,  and  was  adopted  in  1812  by  a  triumphant 
majority  in  the  House  of  Commons." 

All  questions  of  home  politics,  however,  were 
soon  thrown  into  the  background  by  the  more 
absorbing  interests   of   war. 

The  extension  of  privateering  rights  to  Ameri- 
can merchant  vessels  practically  had  the  effect  of 
a  declaration  of  war  with  England.  Adventurous  p™vT°^ 
captains  of  privateering  vessels  on  both  sides  were  ^^"^"^ 
not  slow  in  taking  advantage  of  the  situation. 
Early  in  the  spring,  four  British  barges  in  Hamp- 
ton Roads  were  taken  as  prizes  with  all  their 
crews  by  the  American  cutter  "Jefferson,"  sup- 
ported by  the  United  States  frigate  "Constitu- 
tion." A  few  weeks  later,  on  April  25,  Captain 
Cotthell,  of  the  privateer  schooner  "Surprise," 
captured  the  British  brig  "Kutous,"  12  guns,  and 
brought  her  into  port.  Next,  Captain  David  Por- 
ter, of  the  United  States  ship  "Essex,"  sailed  off 

^  PrelimU 

on  a  cruise  against  the  British  with  a  flag  bearing  ^^"jje^o' 
the  motto,  "Free  Trade  and  Sailors'  Rights."     On 
April    10,  Castlereagh's  note  defining   Great   Brit- 
ain's measures  of   retaliation  was  received.     Presi- 


420  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  Jvmeim 


Madison's 
war  mes- 
saire 


dent  Madison  immediately  convened  his  Cabinet 
and  recommended  open  war.  On  June  1  he  sent 
his  recommendation  to  Congress.  In  it  he  charged 
that  British  cruisers  had  been  "in  the  continued 
practice  of  violating  the  American  flag  on  the 
great  highway  of  nations,  and  seizing  persons 
sailing  under  it;  that  British  cruisers  also  vio- 
lated the  process  of  the  courts,  and  harrowed  en- 
tering and  departing  cruisers;  that  British  coer- 
cive measures,  consisting  of  pretended  blockade 
without  the  presence  of  an  adequate  force,  were 
mere  means  by  which  our  commerce  had  been 
plundered  on  every  sea;  and  this  had  culminated 
in  the  fourth  grievance,  the  sweeping  system  of 
blockades  known  as  the  Orders  in  Council."  On 
America  ^^^^  1^,  after  a  fortnight's  secret  discussion, 
oJfEugiaad  tbe  American  Senate  passed  the  bill  declaring 
war,  the  House  accepted  it,  the  President  signed 
it,  and  war  was  begun.  Naval  encounters  oc- 
curred almost  forthwith.  Land  operations  were  a 
long  time  getting  under  way.  This  was  owing  on 
one  hand  to  a  lack  of  adequate  preparation  in 
America,  and  on  the  other  hand  to  British  reluc- 
tance to  enter  seriously  into  what  could  at  most 
f-  be  regarded  as  but  a  side  issue. 
'  On  June  22,  but  four  days  after  the  American 
makes  war  declaration  of  war,  Napoleon  opened  war  on  E,us- 
sia — the  second  "Polish  war,"  as  he  designedly 
called  it  in  a  curious  declaration  ending  with  the 
phrase,  "Kussia  is  swept  downward  by  her  desti- 
nies; her  fate  must  be  fulfilled." 
'      Since   the   days  of   Xerxes   no  invasion   of   war 


1813  June  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  421 

had  been  prepared  on  so  gigantic  a  scale.     Napo- 
leon's grand   army  alone  numbered  610,058   men,  arlm/J^"^^ 
with   182,111   horses.     With  them   lumbered  1,800 
pieces  of  artillery  and  20,000  commissary  wagoQS. 

Of  the  soldiers,  200,000  were  Frenchmen,  the 
rest  were  Grermans,  Italians,  Poles,  Swiss,  Prus- 
sians, Austrians  and  Bavarians. 

These  troops,  at  the  commencement  of  the  cam- 
paign, were  divided  into  five  great  masses.  The 
first,  220,000  strong,  was  under  the  immediate  or- 
ders of  the  Emperor;  the  second,  75,000  strong, 
was  commanded  by  his  brother  Jerome;  the  third, 
under  the  Viceroy  Eugene,  numbered,  also,  76,000; 
the  right  wing,  under  Schwarzenberg,  consisted 
of  30,000  men,  and  the  left,  under  Macdonald, 
also  of   80,000,     Seventy  thousand   more  followed  Distnbu- 

T  ....  'ion  of 

the  corps,  ready  to  support  any  division.      Among  French 
the    marshals  were  "Victor,    Murat,   Davoust,   Ney, 
Oudinot,   Reynier,   St.   Cyr,   Vandamme,   Schwarz- 
enberg, and  Poniatovsky. 

The  Russian  forces  actually  in  the  field  at  the 
commencement  of  hostilities,  did  not  exceed  215,000 
men;  of  whom  127,000  were  commanded  by  Bar- 
clay de  Tolly,  48,000  by  Prince  Bagration,  and 
40,000  by  Tormasov.  In  addition  to  these,  85.000 
men  were  assembled  in  the  interior  provinces,  and 
50,000  were  in  Moldavia,  all  of  whom  eventually 
aided  in  the  war,  and  raised  the  total  strength  Russia^ 
brought  into  action  during  the  campaign,  though 
never  all  collected  together  at  one  time,  to  300,000 
men. 

On   the  23d  of  June,   Napoleon   approached  the 


422  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  June  1812 

Niemen,  and  the  numerous  columns  of  the  grand 
army  converged  toward  Kovno.  This  town  at 
the  extreme  point  of  a  salient  angle  where  iTus- 
sia  projected  into  Russian  territory,  seemed  n  fa- 
vorable spot  for  commencing  operations.    As  Na- 

omen  polcou  rodc  aloug  the  banks  of  the  river,  his  horse 
stumbled  and  threw  him  upon  the  sand.  Some 
one  exclaimed,  "It  is  a  bad  omen:  a  Roman  would 
retire." 

Characteristic  of  the  whole  subsequent  campaign 
was  the  final  banquet  which  Napoleon  gave  to  his 
marshals  just  before  the  outbreak  of  hostilities. 
In  contrast  to  other  similar  functions  all  the  gen- 
erals sat  grim  and  silent.  At  last  Napoleon  ex- 
claimed angrily:  "What,  my  brave  men,  you  don't 
seem  to  enjoy  the  prospect  of  more  glory?"  "How 
can  we,"  answered  one  of  them,  "since  we  have 
everything  to  lose  and  nothing  to  gain?" 

Napoleon        During  the  next  few  days  the  Niemen  was  crossed 

crosscH  the  "  •' 

by  the  whole  army  marching  in  three  parallel  col- 
umns. As  Napoleon's  army  advanced,  the  inferior 
Russian  forces  fell  back,  leaving  a  ravaged  coun- 
try devoid  of  food  and  fodder.  The  resulting  dis- 
tress to  the  marching  columns  of  the  French  was 
aggravated  by  the  sultry  summer  heat  followed  by 
drenching  rainstormsj  which  spoiled  the  supplies. 
The  horses  fell  by  thousands  and  the  raw  recruits 
straggled  from  the  ranks  until  a  mass  of  80,000 
marauders  in  the  rear  gave  almost  as  much  trouble 
as  the  Russian  Cossacks  swarming  in  front.  When 
the  French  army  had  been  on  Russian  soil  but  six 
days,  and  before  the  first  general  engagement  ciad 


Niemen 


Early 
truuDles 


1813  June  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  423 

been  fought,  more  than  25,000  men  were  invalided 
in  the  field  hospitals  at  Vilna. 

The  first  action  was  fought  between  retreating  J^!^^/'"' 
Cossacks  on  one  side  and  the  extreme  vanguard 
of  Murat's  cavalry.  On  June  26,  Murat  brought 
his  Polish  Lancers  and  ten  picked  regiments  of 
the  French  cavalry  to  bear  on  Count  Ostermann's 
extended  division  of  Cossacks,  and  there  was  fight- 
ing all  along  the  line.  In  the  main,  the  various 
actions  were  desultory  and  undecisive,  serving  no 
other  purpose  than  to  give  each  side  a  chance  to 
bring  up  their  main  columns.     On  the  eve  of  June 

29,   Napoleon  had  brought  forward  180,000  of    his  Prepara- 
tions for 
men,  ready  to  fall  upon  Barclay's  army  of  82,000  ^'^'^tie 

drawn  in  at  Vitepsk. 

As  Napoleon  retired  into  his  tent,  his  last  words 
to  Murat  were:  "To-morrow  at  five,  the  sun  of 
Austerlitz!"  The  next  morning  the  Russians  were 
gone.  Nothing  had  been  left  behind  but  their 
smoldering  watch-fires.  Murat's  skirmishers,  rid- 
ing far  in  advance,  could  not  determine  whether  Napoleon 
the  Russian  army  had  taken  the  road  to  Moscow  or  pointed 
that  to  St.  Petersburg.  Baffled  in  their  hopes  of 
a  decisive  conflict,  the  French  marshals  fell  to 
quarrelling  among  themselves,  while  their  various 
commands  became  an  unwieldy  mass,  as  difficult 
to  move  as  to  keep  on  its  feet.  The  transport 
service   fell    into   confusion,    and    the   suffering   ofFrpnch 

sufferings 

the  soldiers  grew  in  proportion.     Among  the  allied '"^^'■ease 
Germans  and  Austrians  the  officers  and  men  alike 
showerl    such    apathy  that    they  could    scarcely   be 
reckoned   upon   for   the   prompt   execution  of   any 


424  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  July  18« 

movement.  While  Napoleon's  army  was  thus 
coiled  up  at  Vitepsk,  the  Russians  executed 
their  retreat  to  Smolensk  without  molestation. 
At  last  Emperor  Alexander  had  been  induced 
to  leave  his  army,  where  the  memories  of  Aus- 
terlitz  counted  against  him,  and  hastened  to  Mos- 
cow to  arouse  his  nobles  there.  On  July  27,  they 
were  all  summoned  to  a  banquet  at  the  Impe- 
rial palace,  and,  toasting  their  Emperor  unani- 
mously, voted  to  raise  and  equip  at  their  own 
RusMa*^  expense  a  levy  of  every  tenth  man  in  the  popula- 
tion. The  merchants  contributed  two  million  rou- 
bles on  the  spot.  Amid  the  burst  of  enthusiasm 
that  followed  the  proposal,  Alexander  swore  on 
his  sword  that  he  would  "exhaust  the  last  re- 
sources of  the  crown  rather  than  give  in."  Thus 
the  opoltchenye,  a  powerful  reserve  of  bearded 
peasants,  was  created  in  sixteen  interior  provinces 
of  the  vast  empire,  while  the  Russian  army  at  the 
front,  falling  back  step  by  step,  was  steadily  draw- 
ing the  invaders  further  away  from  their  supplies. 
Wise  as  this  policy  proved  in  the  event,  the 
fSfiu!^"  continued  retreat  of  Barclay  exasperated  most  Rus- 
Barciay  sians  at  home  and  many  of  the  young  hot  heads 
serving  in  the  army.  The  feeling  among  his  offi- 
cers grew  so  that  Barclay  at  last  detached  Witt- 
genstein with  25,000  men  to  make  an  offensive 
movement  on  the  Doina,  while  Tormasov,  on  the 
other  flank,  was  permitted  to  demonstrate  against 
the  Austrians  and  Germans  under  Schwarzenberg 
and  Reynier.  Kutusov,  commanding  Wittgenstein's 
vanguard,  got  into  action  with  Oudinot's  corps  oa 


1812  Aug-.  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  425 

the   last  day  of  July.     In  spite  of  heavy  losses  he 
held    out   until    heavily    reinforced   and    then    sue- fife pri^a 
ceeded   in    throwing  Oiidinot    back   over  the  river 
Drissa.     Four  thousand  Frenchmen  fell  in  the  fight. 
At  the  same   time   Tormasov,    finding   Schwarzen- 
berg   unwilling   to  do  anything  serious,    fell   upon 
the  Saxon  corps  stationed  at  Kobrien  and  captured  ^or- 
a  whole   brigade    of   Reynier's   best   troops,     This^''^'^'"'^ 
double    disaster     so     weakened     Napoleon's     ends 
that    he    had    to   deprive    himself    of    his   reserves 
to  strengthen    his  flanks.      Yet  Barclay  continued 
to  draw  in  his  front  and  fell  steadily  back  until  he 
succeeded  in  effecting  a  junction  with  Bagration's  Russian 
corps  of  40,000  men  at  Smolensk.      Here  the  Rus-  jom  forces 
sians  resolved  to  make  a  stand.     On  August  8,  a 
determined  attack  was  made  on   the  French  right 
wing  under  Murat,  but  only  a  drawn  fight  ensued. 
Napoleon  responded  in  force.     Within  a  week,  he 
suddenly   pushed    200,000    of    his    men    over    the 
Dniepr  and  thus  entered  the   soil   of   Old    Russia.  Napoleon 

r  crosses  the 

The    Russians    promptly    fell    back   on   Smolensk.  '^"'«p'' 
The  French  vanguard  under  Murat  and  Ney  over- 
took the  Russian  rearguard  under  General  Neverov- 
skoi.     Murat  sent  eighteen  cavalry  regiments  to  de- 
tach and  capture  the  slow  moving  column  of  Russian 
infantry,  but  though  outmatched  three  to  one,  the 
Russians,  marching  in  square  formation,  withstood  Neverov. 
assault  after  assault  and  fought  their  way  through  ^eat '^"* 
to  Korytnia.     This  fight  is  cherished  as  one  of  the 
proudest  traditions  of  the  Russian  army.     It  lasted 
all  day,  and  during  its  course  forty  distinct  cavalry- 
attacks  were  launched  against  the  column  by  Murat. 


426  A    HISTORY    OF   THE  Aug.  1813 

Neverovskoi  lost  1,100  men  and  five  guns,  more 
than  one-iifth  of  his  force,  but  he  reached  Korytnia 
with  unbroken  ranks,  and  the  next  day  joined  forces 
with  12,000  men  under  Raeffskoi  and  so  succeeded 
in  gaining  Smolensk.  The  two  generals  threw 
themselves  into  the  old  town,   resolved  to  hold  it 

Russian 

Imoiensic  ^^^i^  ^^^  ^^^^  extremity.  The  next  day  Napoleon 
drew  up  before  the  city  with  the  main  body  of  the 
army.  Marshal  Ney,  leading  the  first  corps,  tried 
to  take  the  place  by  assault,  but  was  repulsed  with 
great  loss.  While  the  fight  was  on,  the  Russian 
main  column  under  Barclay  arrived  and  regained 
Smolensk  from  the  rear.  Napoleon  now  felt  sure 
of  his  prey  and  ordered  a  general  assault  on  the 
morrow. 

Barclay,  realizing  the  weakness  of  his  position 
and  the  danger  of  being  cut  off  entirely  from  his 
rear,  ordered  Bagration  and  the  main  army  to  quit 
the  city  under  cover  of  the  night,  while  he  remained 
with  a  rearguard  of  25,000  to  hold  the  enemy  in 
check.  The  next  day  Napoleon,  as  yet  unaware 
that  he  had  been  foiled  once  more,  assailed  Smo- 
lensk with  his  whole  army,  but  the  Russians  fought 
so  well  that  the  fight  lasted  all  day.  At  seven  in 
the  evening  Napoleon  at  last  gave  up  the  attempt 
for  that  day,  having  lost  15,000  men.     Of  the  Rus- 

tZ^Telid  '^'^°«  nearly  10,000  had  fallen.  Too  weak  to  face 
another  day  of  such  frightful  losses,  Barclay  during 
the  night  set  fire  to  the  ancient  city  and  retired  in 
safety  from  the  flaming  citadel  with  all  his  wounded 
and  the  town  refugees.  When  Davoust  with  his 
vanguard   scaled    the    smoking   ramparts    at    three 


S8i3Aug.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  427 

in  the  morning  they  found  all  the  magazines  and 
stores  destroyed,  the  bridges  over  the  Dniepr 
broken  down,  with  nothing  of  value  left  behind 
save  the  brass  cannons  mounted  on  the  outer  for- 
tifications. 

Napoleon,  bound  to  bring  his  elusive  enemy  to 
bay,   drove   his  army  headlong   in   quick  pursuit. 
During  the  same  day  Ney's  cavalry  overtook  Bar-Battieof 
clay  with  his  rearguard  at  Yalentina.     Undismayed 
by  his  strong  position,  Ney  attacked  the  enemy  along 
the  whole  fighting  line.     The  losses  of  the  French 
were  fearful,  but  they  kept  up  the  fight  until  their 
main  body  came  up  and   the  engagement  became 
general.      The  Eussians,   thanks  to  reinforcements 
from  Bagration's  main  column,  stood  their  ground, 
and  thus  effectually  covered  their  comrades'  retreat. 
During  the  night  they  once  more  made  good  their  frelfma^e 
own  retreat.     When  Napoleon  advanced  to  renew  ^^'^"'^^ 
the  attack  next  morning  he  found  nothing  but  a 
desolate   battlefield   strewn    with    15,000   dead   and 
dying  men  from  both  armies.     In  front  of  Politsk, 
during   these    same   days,    another    Russian    corps 
under  Wittgenstein   fought   two  similar  rearguard 
engagements   against   Oudinot's  corps  and   a  divi- 
sion of  Bavarians,   after  which  Wittgenstein,   too, 
retreated  further  into  the  interior. 

Adam,  the  military  artist,  who  accompanied  the 
French  general  staff  into  Russia,  has  left  a  series 
of  drawings  which  give  a  vivid  idea  of  the  depress- 
ing character  of  this  campaign.     The  country  was,,.     . 

r      ^  J  Miseries  of 

ravaged,  the  harvests  trampled  down,  the  wretched  paTga*™' 
isbas   of   the   moujiks  in  ashes.     The  carcasses  of 


428  A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


Aug.  1812 


thousands   of    dead    horses  and   half-buried  bodies 

of  men   infected  the  air,  and  broken-down  wagons 

and  caissons  obstructed  the  roads.     Typhus   fever 

phlCrof^  and  dysentery  raged   among  the   men  and   turned 

the  French  .  '  i     -rr 

the  military  hospitals  at  Vilna  and  Vitepsk  into 
vast  charnel  houses.  Already  the  war,  barren  of 
glory  as  it  was,  had  cost  the  army  one-third  of  its 
original  number.  The  total  results  of  a  week's 
protracted  fighting  since  the  middle  of  August, 
were  21,000  corpses  and  the  smoking  ruins  of  a 
deserted  city. 

Napoleon,  though  face  to  face  with  disaster,  yet 
trusted  to  some  conclusive  masterstroke: 

"The  condition  of  the  army,"  said  he,  "is  fright* 

Napoleon's        ,       ^i  -^  a^-TTi  u    if  .  i 

comment  tul;  1  kuow  it.  At  Vilna,  one-half  were  stragglers; 
now,  they  amount  to  two-thirds:  there  is  not  a  mo- 
ment to  lose:  we  must  grasp  at  peace,  and  it  can  be 
found  only  at  Moscow.  Besides,  the  state  of  the 
army  is  such  as  to  render  a  halt  impossible;  con- 
stant advance  alone  keeps  it  together;  you  may 
lead  it  forward,  but  you  cannot  arrest  its  inove- 
msnt.  We  have  advanced  too  far  to  retreat.  If 
1  liad  only  military  glory  in  view,  I  should  have 
nothing  to  do  but  return  to  Sniolensko,  and  extend 
my  wings  on  either  side,  so  as  to  crush  Wittgenstein 
and  TormasoflE.  These  operations  would  be  bril- 
liant: they  would  form  a  glorious  termination  to 
the  campaign;  but  they  would  not  conclude  the 
war.  Peace  is  before  us;  we  have  to  march  only 
eight  days  to  obtain  it:  when  we  are  so  near  our 
object,  it  is  impossible  to  deliberate.  Let  us  ad- 
vance to  Moscow." 

Advance        Qn  Auffust  22,  Napoleon  set  out  from  Smolensk 

on  Moacow  ~  '  r 

on  his  march  to  Moscow.     At  St.   Petersburg  the 


1812  Sept.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  429 

feeling  of  dismay  at  the  enemy's  steady  approach 
on  the  sacred  city  had  reached  such  a  pitch  that 
Stein,  Emperor  Alexander's  best  counsellor  during 
these  gloomy  days,  found  himself  unable  to  main- 
tain Barclay  de  Tolly  in  chief  command.  Of  f or- g;;^°[|J 
eign  extraction,  like  Stein  himself,  the  crafty  Scotch 
general  was  execrated  by  the  Slav  party  at  court 
and  in  the  army.  He  had  to  give  way  to  Kutu- 
sov,  the  septuagenarian  soldier,  notorious  for  his 
pronounced  Muscovite  traits. 

Kutusov  took  charge  at  Gyatsk  and  soon  bid  a^"*"^^'' 

»-j  '^  assumes 

halt  to  the  general  retreat  at  Borodino.  This  was*^***'^® 
on  the  second  day  of  September.  Redoubts  and 
trenches  were  thrown  up  and  everything  prepared 
for  a  strong  stand.  The  Russians  mustered  121,- 
000  men,  many  of  whom  were  Opoltchenye  militia 
or  raw  recruits  that  had  never  been  under  fire. 
Within  four  days  the  French  column  came  up. 
Murat's  vanguard  immediately  threw  themselves 
upon  the  first  line  of  Russian  redoubts,  the  Che- 
varadino,  held  by  twelve  thousand  under  Gort- 
shakoff.      After    severe    fighting   the   redoubt    was  stand  at 

Borodiufi 

carried  at  nightfall  and  the  Russians  fell  back  on 
their  second  line  of  defences,  the  Raevsky  battery 
between  the  Red  Mount  and  the  village  of  Boro- 
dino. Deep  silence  reigned  in  the  Russian  camp 
on  the  eve  of  battle;  religious  fervor  and  patriotic 
fury  inflamed  all  hearts;  they  passed  the  night  con- 
fessing and  communing;  they  put  on  white  shirts 
as  if  for  a  wedding.  In  the  morning  100,000  were 
blessed  on  their  knees  and  sprinkled  with  holy 
water  by  their  priests.     The  eikou  of  the  Virgin 


430  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Sept.  18I3 

of  St.  Vladimir,  rescued  from  Smolensk,  was  car- 
ried around  among  the  troops. 

Napoleon  next  morning  was  elated  to  find  the 
Russians  still  drawn  up  in  the  line  of  battle.  The 
French  officers  and  soldiers  shared  his  enthusiasm; 
and  even  to  the  wearied  allies  the  prospect  of  battle 
appeared  to  bring  relief.  At  sunrise  Napoleon,  ap- 
Battieof    pealing  for  the  last  time  to  his  "sun  of  Austerlitz," 

Borodino      ^  °  ' 

ordered  all  the  bugles  and  drums  along  the  French 
battle  front  to  sound  for  the  charge.  The  French  ar- 
tillery posted  on  an  eminence  behind  the  vanguard, 
opened  fire.  Under  cover  of  this,  the  French  right 
under  Davoust  charged  into  the  Russian  left,  where 
three  little  redoubts  were  held  by  Bagration.  Da- 
voust went  down  with  his  horse  at  the  first  shock. 
Generals  Rapp  and  Campans  were  likewise  struck 
down.  When  Rapp,  wounded  for  the  twenty-sec- 
ond time,  was  carried  past  Napoleon,  the  Emperor 
said  impatiently:  "Always  Rapp  I"  After  a  hot 
hand  to  hand  fight,  the  French,  with  superb  dash, 
succeeded  in  taking  the  second  line  of  redoubts,  but 
were  almost  immediately  dislodged  by  the  Russian 
reserves  brought  up  by  Bagration.  Ney  now  threw 
himself  into  the  fight  with  his  entire  corps  and  re- 
took the  redoubt,  but  Kutusov,  seeing  his  left  wing 
shaken,  threw  Baggovud's  corps  over  from  his  right, 
and  thus  once  more  made  himself  master  of  the  po- 
sition. Ney  returned  to  the  attack  again  and  i>.gain, 
but  after  a  most  stubborn  fight  of  several  hours, 
found  himself  constrained  to  send  for  help  to  the 
Emperor's  headquarters.  The  officers  of  the  Old 
Guard   clamored   to   be  sent,   but  the  Emperor  re- 


1812 Sept.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  431 

fused  them:  *'Eight  hundred  leagues  from  France 
I  will  not  risk  my  last  reserve."  Instead  he  or- 
dered up  the  Young  Guard.  A  column  of  three 
full  army  corps  thus  combined  advanced  to  the 
attack  led  by  Mey  and  Davoust.  The  Eussian 
batteries  concentrated  their  fire  on  this  mass. 
The  French  ranks  were  mowed  down  in  platoons. 
W  hen  they  still  persevered,  Bagration,  staking  all 
on  this  end  of  the  battle,  ordered  his  entire  left 
wing  out  of  the  trenches  and  charged  them  into 
the  French  flank.  He  himself  led  the  charge,  and 
fell,  mortally  wounded,  at  the  head  of  his  troops.  Bagration 
For  more  than  an  hour  the  battle  was  carried  on 
with  the  utmost  fury  until  nearly  80,000  troops  on 
both  sides  were  engaged  in  it.  Only  when  the 
Russian  centre  under  Barclay  began  to  give  way 
at  Borodino  and  on  the  Red  Mount,  under  re- 
peated charges  of  the  cuirassiers  and  a  final  bay- 
onet charge  of  the  Old  Guard,  did  the  Russians 
yield  the  battle.  Fighting  still,  they  withdrew 
slowly  to  a  strong  position  behind  the  ravine  of 
Semenevskoy  at  Psarevo.  There  they  resolutely 
held    their    ground.      "Napoleon,"    says    General  Brandt's 

"  1.  T  J  descnptioE 

Brandt,  in  his  memoirs,  "had  succeeded,  but  at 
what  a  price!  The  great  redoubt  and  its  sur- 
roundings offered  a  spectacle  which  surpassed  the 
worst  horrors  that  could  be  dreamed  of.  The 
ditches,  the  fosses,  the  very  interior  of  the  out- 
works had  disappeared  beneath  a  hill  of  dead 
and  dying,  six  or  eight  men  deep  heaped  one 
upon   another." 

In  this  terrible  battle  the  total  casualties  aggre- 


432  A    HISTORY    OF    TtSE  Sept.  1818 

gated  Dearly  one  hundred  thousand.  In  the 
^^°^  French  bulletins  it  was  designated  as  the  battle 
of  the  Moscova.  The  Kussians  know  it  as  the 
battle  of  Borodino.  There,  in  Tolstoi's  pregnant 
phrase,  "the  beast  was  wounded  to  the  death." 
The  French  lost  12,000  killed  and  38,000  wounded. 
Among  the  killed  was  one  of  the  Caulaincourts  who 
led  the  cuirassier  charge,  and  Montbrun,  while  Da- 
voust,  Kapp,  and  Uampans  were  severely  wounded. 
The  Kussians  lost  15,000  killed,  30,000  wounded 
and  2,000  prisoners.  Among  the  dead  were  Kou- 
taisov  and  the  two  Tutshkovs.  The  loss  of  brave 
Bagration  was  felt  the  most, 
reire^i"  ^^  ^^^  ^^^^  ^^  such  frightful  losses  Kutusov, 
resumed  j^eeding  the  counsels  of  Barclay,  resumed  the  re- 
treat toward  Moscow,  nor  did  he  bid  a  halt  until 
half  a  league  in  front  of  that  city.  On  September 
15,  the  Kussian  generals  held  a  council  of  war  on 
the  hill  of  Fily,  which  overhangs  Moscow,  and  de- 
termined in  the  end  to  abandon  the  ancient  city  to 
its  fate.  Bennigsen,  Ostermann,  and  Prince  Eugene 
of  Wartemberg  were  in  favor  of  a  last  battle,  but 
Barclay  declared  that  after  all  Moscow  was  "only  a 
city  like  any  other."  Kutusov,  after  listening  to 
all,  said:  "Here  my  head,  be  it  good  or  bad,  must 
decide.  We  will  retreat."  In  justification  of  this 
tragic  measure  Kutusov  wrote  to  the  Qzdr  that  "it 
was  indispensable  to  preserve  the  army  until  the 
abauuouod  new  levies  could  be  brought  up,  and,  moreover, 
that  it  would  lead  the  enemy  into  a  snare  where  his 
destruction  would  be  inevitable. ' ' 

The  next  day  the  Russian  army  defiled  sorrow* 


1812  Sept.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  433 

fully  through  the  streets  of  Moscow,  and  marched 
for  Kolomna,  followed  by  an  endless  train  of  300,- 
000  refugees  from  the  city.  During  the  forenoon  of 
the  same  day  the  advance  columns  of  the  French 
came  within  sight  of  the  sacred  city.  As  they  be-  Arrival  of 
held  the  rays  of  the  sun  glinting  from  the  golden 
dome  of  the  Kremlin  and  descried  the  many  mina- 
rets of  the  old  Kussian  metropolis,  the  soldiers 
broke  into  a  jubilant  shout:  "Moscow!"  Napo- 
leon himself  drew  rein  on  an  eminence  to  exclaim: 
"Here  is  the  famous  city  at  last!"  But  he  added 
immediately:  "It  was  high  time." 

When  the  French  entered  the  city  they  marched 
through  silent  streets  and  found  deserted  quarters. 
No  one  appeared  to  present  the  keys  of  the  city, 
and  Napoleon  asked  impatiently,  "Where  are  the 
Boyars?"  On  the  great  red  staircase  of  the  Im- 
perial Kremlin  palace  he  waited  until  late  in  the 
evening  before  Mortier's  provost  guards  succeeded 
in  getting  together  a  deputation  of  nondescripts  to 
present  their  submission.  The  next  day,  Septem- 
ber 15,  when  the  bulk  of  the  French  army  had 
been  quartered  in  the  city,  fire  broke  out  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  Moscow.  No  fire  pumps  were  to  incendiary 
be  found.  Many  incendiaries  were  caught  red- 
handed  and  were  shot  by  the  soldiers.  No  less 
than  four  hundred  were  court-martialed.  At  raid- 
night  the  windows  of  the  Kremlin  were  lighted  op 
by  flames  leaping  from  the  roof  of  the  Governor's 
palace.  Prince  Rastopshin,  a  true  Muscovite,  com-^^^^^  _ 
bining  the  polish  of  a  European  with  the  savagery  ^'^^'^'^  p*^ 

of  a  Tartar,  had  the  torch  put  to  his  own  palace. 
XlXth  Century— Yol.  1—19 


434  A   HISTORY  OF   THE  Sept.  i8ia 

At  the  same  time  he  ordered  Voronenko  to  set  fire 
to  the  public  stores  of  vodka  and  oil.  Withal  he 
took  pains  to  spread  the  report  that  the  fire  was  the 
work  of  the  foreign  invaders.  As  he  grimly  put 
it  in  his  curious  memoir,  "The  Truth  About  the 
Burning  of  Moscow":  "It  was  an  event  which  I 
had  prepared,  but  I  contented  myself  with  inflam- 
"The truth ing  the  spirits  of  men."  On  the  iron  door  of  hia 
burningr  of  splcudid  couutry  seat  at  Vorovono,  Prince  Eastop- 
shin  wrote:  "For  eight  years  I  have  lived  happy 
here  with  my  family.  Frenchmen,  at  your  ap- 
proach, I  set  fire  to  my  house,  lest  it  be  polluted 
by  your  presence.  I  have  also  given  you  ray  two 
houses  in  Moscow  worth  half  a  million  of  rubles. 
You  will  find  nothing  but  ashes." 

A  veering  wind  spread  the  conflagration  in  Mos- 
cow. By  the  next  morning  the  Tartar  quarter,  the 
"white  town"  and   parts  of  the  suburbs  or  "laud 

Fre  ^ 

Kenera.r    towu,"    Were    a   sea   of    fire.      Napoleon's    guards 
worked  hard  to  save  the  Kremlin,  but  at  last  the 
danger  became  too  imminent  and  the  Emperor  had 
to  abandon    the  palace.      With  some  difficulty  he 
made   his   way   through    the    burning   city   to   the 
Czar's    summer    palace    at    Petrovski.       For    four 
days  the  fire  raged  unabated,   until  by  September 
20  only  one-tenth  of  the  city's   houses   were   left 
untouched. 
The   news   of    the    burning   of    the    sacred    city 
The  peas-   aroused    the   mass   of   Russian    peasants   to  a  state 
furiated     of    blind  fury  against  the  French  invaders.      The 
moujiks  fell  on  foraging  parties  or  single  marau- 
ders  and    killed    them    with    pitchforks.      In    the 


1812  Oct.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  435 

single  district  of  Porovsk  3,500  soldiers  were  thus 
slain.  Guerilla  war  broke  out  wherever  the  French 
pitched  their  camps.  The  Czar,  in  St.  Petersburg, 
exclaimed:  "Now  we  shall  make  war  in  earnest." 
As  if  in  token  of  these  words  the  Russian  com-  Russians 
manders  at  Kolomna,  wheeling  their  divisions  offensive 
around  the  French  outposts,  assumed  an  offensive 
position  at  Tarutino — a  masterly  move  which  served 
to  secure  them  reinforcements  and  supplies  from  the 
richest  provinces  of  the  empire,  while  at  the  same 
time  it  threatened  the  enemy's  communications. 
Hordes  of  Cossacks  skirmished  in  close  vicinity  of 
Moscow.  At  a  loss  what  to  do  next,  Napoleon 
bivouacked  his  army  on  the  barren  ground  of 
what  was  left  of  Moscow,  and  waited  for  the 
Russians  to  give  some  sign  of  surrender.  While 
he  thus  lost  time  his  fate  was  accomplished  in 
other  quarters   of  the   world. 

The  burden  cast  upon  England  by  the  maritime 
war  with  America,  which  had  already  cost  the 
British  navy  some  of  her  best  cruisers,  made  the 
new  Ministry  the  more  anxious  to  profit  by  Napo- 
leon's troubles  in  Russia.  After  Wellington  had 
taken  the  last  French  stronghold  on  the  Portuguese 
frontier,  Marmont,  cut  off  from  Soult's  forces  in 
Andalusia,  found  his  position  very  precarious.  In 
response  to  his  appeals.  Napoleon  wrote  from  the  French  re- 
north:  "You  grumble  about  distances  and  the  lack  Spain 
of  food.  1  have  in  Russia  very  different  distances 
to  go  over,  and  very  different  difficulties  to  over- 
come to  feed  my  soldiers.  Eh  bien,  we  must  do 
as  we  can."     Marmont  was  forced  back  from  the 


436  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Summer  1818 

Tagus  after  General  Hill  with  15,000  men  had  taken 
the  bridge  of  Almarez,     Unable  to  resist  Welling- 
ton's march  on  Salamanca,  Marmont  withdrew  first 
Salamanca  ^^y^^*-^  ^^^  Tormes  and   then   to  the  Douro.     On 
stormed     j^^^   28,    Wellington,    after  a   hot   fight,    stormed 
Salamanca.     An  Anglo-Sicilian  army  worried  Mar- 
shal  Suchet   in  Catalonia,  and   an   English  squad- 
ron, cruising  On  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  threatened  the 
provinces  of  the  north  with  a  disembarkation.     The 
siege  of  Cadiz  had  to  be  raised  by  the  French,  and 
Andalusia    was   evacuated.      Marmont  resolved   to 
siefreof     make  a  bold  stroke.     He  crossed    the  Douro  and 

Cadiz 

raised  met  the  Steady  advance  of  the  British  by  a  counter 
advance  upon  Salamanca.  After  a  series  of  well- 
fought  skirmishes  on  July  22,  Marmont  took  up  a 
strong  position  opposite  the  hills  of  Arapilez,  one 
league  from  Salamanca.  The  battle  had  barely 
begun  when  Marmont,  perceiving  weakness  at  the 
British  right  end,  detached  his  left  wing  to  out- 
flank the  enemy.  Wellington,  from  the  height  of 
Arapilez,  caught  sight  of  the  widening  gap  be- 
tween Marmont's  centre  and  his  left,  and  exclaimed 
joyfully  to  the   Duke  of  Alava:  "Behold,  I  have 

Battle  of    them:  Marmont  is  lost."     The  whole  of  the  British 

Salamanca         .  . 

main  column  was  driven  like  a  wedge  into  the  gap 
and  the  French  arniy  was  cut  in  two.  General 
Maucune,  commanding  the  French  left,  turned 
columns  and  bravely  fought  his  way  back  to  the 
village  of  Arapilez,  but  the  French  centre  suc- 
cumbed to  the  shock.  While  trying  to  save  the 
day  Marmont  was  wounded,  and  so  was  Bennet, 
bis  successor  in  command.    Young  General  Clausel, 


1812  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  4^17 

who  next  took  charge,  found  the  odds  too  heavy 
against  him  and  ordered  a  retreat.  The  loss  of  the 
French  had  been  14,000,  whereas  the  allies  lost 
5,600  men.  Eeturning  in  good  order,  Clausel  led 
his  troops  over  the  Douro,  and  fell  back  on  Burgos. 
He  was  joined  there  by  King  Joseph  and  13,000 
men.  It  was  too  late.  The  campaign  was  over — 
lost  to  France. 

At  the  continued  approach  of  the  British,  King 
Joseph  retreated  first  to  the  capital.  Even  Madrid 
had  to  be  given  up  to  retire  to  Valencia.  Welling- |(^^(fHat« 
ton  triumphantly  entered  Madrid  on  August  12, 
Only  after  Soult  and  Jourdan  had  joined  forces 
with  Joseph  and  Marmont  were  the  French  able  to 
regain  control  of  Madrid,  but  so  acute  was  the  dis- 
cord between  the  French  commanders,  that  they 
failed  to  bring  their  united  columns  to  bear,  either 
on  Wellington's  main  army,  operating  before  Bur- 
gos, or  on  Hill's  detached  corps,  which  might  have 
been  cut  off.  The  concentration  of  the  three  great 
French  armies  in  Spain  remained  without  result. 

Great  Britain's  war  with  America,  during  the 
interval,  had  grown  to  serious  proportions.  The 
American  navy,  when  the  war  of  1812  broke  out,  ^an  war"* 
was  but  poorly  prepared  for  service.  The  "Con- 
stitution," "Chesapeake"  and  "John  Adams"  were 
not  ready  for  sea  service.  The  only  vessels  avail- 
able were  placed  under  the  command  of  Com- 
modore Rodgers.  They  were  the  "President," 
"United  States,"  "Commodore  Decatur,"  "Con- 
gress," "Constellation"  and  "Argus."  The  Brit- 
ish ships  stationed    on   the   North    Atlantic   coast 


438  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Summer  181» 

were  neither  many  nor  formidable.  Their  squad- 
ron in  all  numbered  eight  sail-o'-the-line  and  frig- 
ates bearing  a  total  armament  of  312  guns,  not 
counting  those  mounted  on  the  smaller  corvettes 
and  sloops-o'-war.  Yet  they  were  sufficient  to 
render  hopeless  any  naval  attempt  at  Canada  or 
the  British  West  Indies.  The  war  on  sea,  as  it 
turned  out,  was  fought  as  a  series  of  single  naval 
encounters — ship  against  ship — where  all  depended 
on  individual  seamanship  and  straight  shooting. 

Three  days  after  the  declaration  of  war  Commo- 
dore Rodgers  sailed  out  of  New  York  harbor  with 
his  squadron.  He  reached  Jamaica  on  June  23. 
Soon  a  sail  was  discovered,  which  proved  to  be  the 

The 

"Preai-      English  "Blandina"  with  thirty-six  guns.     Rodgers 

dent"  °  J  &  o 

^Bian-*^^  himself  fired  the  first  gun.  The  first  three  shots 
'*^*'  were  seen  to  do  much  damage.  Then  a  gun  on 
the  "President's"  main  deck  blew  up,  killing  and 
wounding  sixteen  Americans,  among  them  Com- 
modore Rodgers.  The  "President"  now  bore  up 
and  fired  her  first  broadside,  but  only  injured  the 
"Blandina's"  rigging  while  sustaining  a  galling 
fire.  Twice  after  that  the  "President"  repeated 
these  tactics,  but  the  "Blandina"  succeeded  in 
wearing  away  and  by  midnight  had  run  beyond 
danger.  The  chase  took  the  "President"  far  out 
of  her  course,  and  so  it  came  that  the  American 
squadron  turned  up  at  the  Newfoundland  banks 
early  in  July,  cruising  thence  eastward  nearly  to 
the  English  Channel.  Thence  they  returned  to 
Boston.  They  had  made  seven  prizes  and  suc- 
ceeded in  retaking  one  American  vessel. 


1832  July  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  439 

On  July  23,  the  "Essex,"  Captain  David  Porter, 
insufficiently  armed,  set  sail  from  New  York.  Ono/The'^ 
Jaly  11  she  fell  in  with  the  "Minerva,"  then  act- 
ing as  a  convoy  to  seven  transports  with  1,400 
troops  bound  for  Quebec.  The  "Essex"  ran  in  and 
took  one  transport  with  200  soldiers,  but  the  captain 
of  the  "Minerva,"  by  skilful  manoeuvring,  kept  in 
close  touch  with  his  other  transports.  Among  the 
youngest  midshipmen  on  the  "Essex"  was  D.  G.  Far- 
ragut,  then  thirteen  years  old.  He  wrote  in  a  letter 
home  that  the  crew  of  the  "Essex"  had  been  so 
thoroughly  trained  as  boarders  that  every  man  was 
prepared  for  such  an  exploit,  with  cutlasses  ground 
to  razor  edge,  boarding  pistols,  and  dirks  made  out 
of  files.  On  August  13,  the  "Essex"  fell  in  with 
the  British  ship  "Alert."  Captain  Porter  handled 
the  "Essex"  in  such  a  manner  that  the  enemy  was 
led  to  believe  that  he  was  trying  to  escape.  Pass- 
ing under  the  stern  of  the  "Essex,"  the  "Alert" 
sent  in  a  broadside,  doing  no  damage.  Thereupon 
Captain  Porter  opened  with  all  his  guns.     In  less  capture 

of  the 

than    ten   minutes   the  "Alert"   struck  her  colors,  "•^lerf 
was   boarded,    and    had    her   crew   disarmed.     On 
September  7,  the  "Essex"  returned  to  New  York, 
having  r&ade  ten  prizes. 

The  British  frigate  "Blandina,"  on  escaping 
from  Rodgers,  carried  the  news  of  the  war  to  Hali- 
fax. On  July  5,  Vice- Admiral  Savage  despatched 
a  British  squadron  on  a  cruise  for  American  ves- 
sels. It  was  commanded  by  Captain  Broke  of  the 
"Shannon"  with  thirty-eight  guns,  and  included 
the  "Belvidera,"  thirty-six,  the  "Africa,"  thirty- 


440  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  July  18ia 

four,  and  the  "tKoIus,"  thirtj-two  guns.  After 
capturing  the  "Nautilus"  on  July  16,  when  the 
fleet  was  four  leagues  off  Barnegat,  they  discovered 
The  "Con-  *^®  frigate  "Constitution,"  Captain  Hull  command- 
to action'  ii^g-  She  had  four  hundred  and  fifty  men  who  were 
all  new  to  the  service.  At  7.30  p.m.,  the  "Consti- 
tution," having  sighted  the  five  sail  of  the  enemy, 
beat  to  action  and  signals  were  exchanged  for  an 
hour  with  the  "Guerri^re."  Early  next  morning 
the  captain  of  the  "Guerri^re, "  sighting  the  "Bel- 
videra"  and  other  British  ships  in  the  offing,  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  they  were  Commodore  Rod- 
gers'  squadron  and  stood  away  from  the  "Constitu- 
tion" before  discovering  his  mistake.  At  five  in 
the  morning  the  "Constitution"  had  on  her  lee 
quarter  two  of  the  enemy's  ships  with  three  more 
astern.  The  sea  was  calm  and  both  the  American 
and  British  ships  were  towing.  The  "Shannon" 
gained,  but,  thanks  to  the  handling  of  Hull,  the 
American  frigate  glided  away.  Shortly  after  nine 
in  the  morning  Hull  cleared  for  action.  About 
this  time  the  "Guerridre,"  recognizing  her  ene- 
mies, opened  fire,  but  her  shots  fell  short.  At 
two  in  the  afternoon  Captain  Byron  on  the  "Bel- 
videra"  got  near  enough  to  the  "Constitution"  to 
exchange  shots  with  her.  Hull  expected  to  be 
overtaken  and  had  prepared  to  disable  the  first 
frigate  before  her  consorts  should  close  with  him. 
All  through  the  afternoon  and  evening  the  nearest 
British  frigate  kept  on  towing  barely  out  of  gun- 
shot. Next  morning  early,  the  "Belvidera,"  forg- 
ing ahead  off  the  "Constitution's"   lee,  tacked  to 


I 


1812  Aug.  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  441 

the  eastward,  compelling  the  "Constitution"  to  do 
likewise.  By  this  time  the  five  British  frigates 
were  all  on  the  eastward  tack  with  all  canvas 
out.  At  noon  Hull  had  dropped  his  pursuers  from 
two  to  five  miles  behind.  Near  sundown  Hull, 
taking  advantage  of  a  threatening  rainstorm,  bore  contest^ 
away,  and  thus  made  good  his  escape  from  an  over- 
whelming force  after  an  exciting  three  days'  chase. 
It  was  a  bloodless  encounter,  but  the  honors  for 
superior  seamanship,  so  highly  prized  by  British 
sailors,  fell  to   America. 

.  On  August  2,  the  "Constitution"  stood  out  of 
Boston  Harbor  again  and  headed  for  Cape  Eace. 
Having  turned  southward.  Captain  Hull,  on  Au- 
gust 19,  made  out  a  large  sail  which  proved  to  be 
the  "Guerri^re."  The  English  ship  opened  fire. 
For  a  full  hour  the  two  big  ships  exchanged  broad- 
sides. By  six  o'clock  they  came  within  half  pistol 
shot  and  raked  one  another's  decks  with  a  furious 
cannonade.  After  twenty  minutes  of  this  murder- 
ous fire  the  "Guerri^re's"  mizzen  mast  came  down. 
Then  the  ships  got  foul  of  each  other  and  the 
Americans  attempted  to  board.  Captain  Dacres  of 
the  "Guerri^re"  was  severely  wounded.  At  last 
the  "Guerri^re"  got  clear,  but  the  loss  of  her  main- 
mast and  foremast  left  her  a  defenceless  hulk.  At  i'Constitu- 
seven  in  the  evening  the  English  ship  struck  her  the  "olTer- 
colors.  Out  of  the  crew  of  272  men,  the  "Guer- 
ri^re"  lost  23  killed  and  56  wounded.  The  ship 
itself  was  sinking  and  had  to  be  blown  up  by  Cap- 
tain Hull,  who  forthwith  returned  to  Boston  to  re- 
pair his  badly  battered  ship. 


442  A    HISTORY    OF   THE 


Sept.  1812 


The  career  of  the  "Wasp,"  an  American  sloop 
"Wasp's"  of  eighteen  guns,  commanded  by  Captain  Jack 
career  Jones,  was  brief  and  brilliant.  Her  first  opponent 
was  the  "Frolic,"  a  sloop-o'-war  of  one  hundred 
feet.  They  ran  parallel,  sixty  yards  apart,  for 
fifteen  minutes.  Drawing  closer,  they  at  last  ran 
foul.  The  "Wasp"  crossed  the  "Frolic's"  bow. 
Her  crew  then  clambered  over  the  bowsprit  of  the 
"Frolic"  and  found  only  twenty  survivors  aboard 
her.  Of  the  "Wasp's"  crew  but  ten  had  fallen. 
The  fight  was  won  by  superior  marksmanship.  Be- 
fore the  smoke  of  the  guns  had  cleared  away,  the 
British  ship  "Poictiers,"  of  seventy-four  guns, 
came  up,  and,  capturing  both,  took  them  as  prizes 
to  Bermuda. 

Rodgers  and  Decatur  sailed  from  Boston  on  Oc- 
tober 8  with  the  frigates  "President,"  "United 
States,"  "Congress"  and  "Argus."  Rodgers,  with 
two  of  these  vessels,  cruised  far  and  wide.  The 
"Argus"  in  particular  made  valuable  prizes  and 
escaped  from  a  British  squadron  by  excellent 
manoeuvring.  Decatur  in  the  "United  States" 
sailed  eastward,  and  when  near  the  Azores  sighted 
a  sail.  It  turned  out  to  be  the  British  man-o'-war 
"Macedonian,"  with  thirty-eight  guns.  The  En- 
glishman came  too  close  and  was  badly  handled  by 
Decatur     a  raking  fire  that  cut  her  rigging  to  pieces.     After 

captures 

the  "Mace- a   numbcr  of    her  eruns  had    been  dismounted   she 

donian  o 

surrendered.  Decatur  apologized  for  the  length  of 
time  spent  in  forcing  the  surrender,  "by  reason 
of  a  rough  sea  and  the  enemy's  reluctance  to  come 
to  closer  quarters."     The  "Macedonian"   was  the 


1812  Oct.  NINETEENTH  CENl'URY  443 

only  British  man-o'-war  brought  in  as  a  prize  to 
an  American  port. 

Before  the  year  closed  the  "Constitution"  took 
another  cruise.  She  sailed  October  26,  with  Bain- 
bridge  in  command,  in  company  with  the  "Hor- 
net." By  the  middle  of  November  she  went  into  • 
port  at  San  Salvador.  There  she  left  the  "Hor- 
net," and  soon  after  sighted  the  British  frigate 
"Jena,"  of  the  same  tonnage  as  the  "Guerriere," 
with  a  crew  of  426  men.  Early  in  the  afternoon 
the  "Constitution"  came  within  pistol  shot,  and 
ten  minutes  later  the  two  ships  were  foul.  There- 
after   the    conflict    was    a    slaughter.      In    fifteen  tion"  de- ' 

feats  the 

minutes    the  "Jena's"   rigging  was  cut   to   pieces.  "J^°*" 
At  four  in   the  afternoon  she  ceased  firing.     Her 
captain  was  mortally  wounded,  48  of  her  men  lay 
dead  and  102  were  wounded.     The  "Constitution" 
lost  only  12  men  with  22  wounded. 

Thus  ended  the  first  year  of  the  naval  war  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  England.  The  com- 
merce of  the  United  States  had  suffered  almost 
total  destruction.  The  contest  so  far  hung  not  so 
much  on  the  losses  which  were  inflicted  on  Eng- 
land, as  on  those  which  the  people  of   the  United  Results  of 

^       ^  naval  war 

States  could  sustain.  On  land  the  American  opera- 
tions contrasted  dismally  with  the  brilliant  exploits 
won  at  sea. 

One  w  '^ek  after  the  declaration  of  war  the  Ameri- 
can army  was  fixed  at  twenty-five  regiments  of 
infantry,  four  of  artillery  and  two  of  dragoons — 
quaking  36,700  men.  The  actual  force  was  only 
10,000,  of  whom  nearly  half  were  recruits. 


444  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Summer  1812 

Detroit  claimed  early  attention.  It  was  within 
gunshot  of  British  territory  and  was  surrounded 
by  hostile  Indians.     William  Hull,  the  Governor  of 

Land  oper-  -■     .        i  •  c       i 

ations  Michigan,  advised  an  increase  of  the  naval  force 
on  Lake  Erie.  General  Dearborn,  of  Boston,  was 
given  a  command  on  the  Ontario  and  St.  Lawrence. 
Hull  set  out  in  the  spring  of  1812,  having  no  under- 
standing with  Dearborn  or  the  Secretary  of  War. 
The  force  destined  for  Detroit  consisted  of  1,500 
men,  and  they  were  joined  in  June  by  1,000  more 
men.  Hull  took  command.  Detroit  was  two  hun- 
dred miles  away,  and  the  little  army  had  to  cut  its 
way  through  wild  forests  and  over  unbridged  rivers. 
Late  in  June,  when  he  had  advanced  seventy-five 
miles,  Hull  received  a  despatch  from  Secretary 
Eustis  "urging  haste,  and  he  left  his  camp  equi- 
page behind  and  hurried  to  the  Maumee  River, 
thirty-five  miles  away.  There  he  despatched  his 
personal  effects,  including  his  papers,  in  a  schooner, 
and  within  twenty-four  hours  received  a  despatch 
announcing  the  declaration  of  war.     On  the  same 

Hull  day  the  schooner  was  seized  by  the  British.     Hull 

invades 

Canada  reached  Detroit  on  July  5.  The  fort  was  a  square 
inclosure  of  two  acres,  but  did  not  command  the 
river.  The  people  of  the  territory  numbered  about 
5,000,  while  the  town  itself  contained  800  souls. 
On  July  9,  Hull  received  orders  to  invade  Canada, 
and  on  the  12th  he  crossed  the  river. 

Meanwhile  Dearborn  at  Albany  and  Boston 
wasted  time  with  details  for  two  months.  On 
June  22,  he  received  news  of  the  declaration  of 
war.     On  July  9,  he  received  orders  to  engage  the 


iai2  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  445 

enemy  on  Lake  Champlain,  at  the  same  time  that 
fl nil's  army  crossed  into  Canada  and  challenged 
the  British  forces  on  the  lakes.  On  July  19  and 
24,  American  detachments  were  driven  in  by  tbe 
British.  Then  came  news  that  Mackinaw  had  sur-  t^tlY^ 
rendered,  and  that  the  Indians  were  gathering  to 
fall  on  Detroit. 

Upper  Canada  from  Detroit  to  Ottawa  contained 
80,000  people.  The  political  capital  was  York 
(now  Toronto)  on  Lake  Ontario.  The  British 
civil  and  military  commander  was  Brock.  He 
was  a  man  of  unusual  power  and  of  military 
training.  During  the  winter  vessels  had  been 
armed  on  Lake  Erie,  giving  him  command  of 
the  inland  waters  to  Detroit.  Hull's  passage  of 
the  Detroit,  on  July  12,  showed  Brock  where  the 
first  blow  was  to  be  struck.  Brock's  energy  at 
once  burst  forth;  he  sent  to  Amherstburg  all  the 
force  possible,  and  he  ordered  the  seizure  of  Mack-  British 

activity 

inaw.  On  August  6,  he  left  for  Lake  Erie.  Secure 
at  Niagara,  he  took  300  picked  men  and  coasted 
up  to  Detroit  River.  Early  in  August,  Hull  awoke 
to  the  dangers  of  the  situation.  He  made  arrange- 
ments to  send  1,000  men  to  the  relief  of  Niagara.  Alliance 
On  August  15,  Brock  held  a  council  at  which  there  dians 
were  1,000  Indians. 

"Among  them,"  he  said,  "I  found  some  extraor- 
dinary characters.  He  who  attracted  most  my  at- 
'  tention  was  a  Shawnee  chief,  Tecumseh,  brother  to 
the  prophet  who  the  last  two  years  had  carried  on 
an  active  warfare,  contrary  to  our  remonstrances, 
against  the  United  States.  A  more  sagacious  and 
active  man  does  not,  1  believe,  exist." 


446 


A    HISTORY   OF    THE 


Autumn  1812 


At  noon  on  August  15,  Hull  was  summoned  to 
surrender  and  refused.  Brock  instantly  ordered 
two  armed  vessels  to  move  up  the  river,  while 
a  battery  opened  fire  from  the  Canadian  shore. 
During  the  night  Tecumseh,  with  600  Indians, 
crossed  the  river  two  miles  below  and  cut  off 
communication  between  the  fort  and  McArthur 
and  Cass.  Brock  crossed  before  daybreak.  He 
came  to  close  quarters  within  three-quarters  of 
a  mile  of  the  American  24-pounders.  Nothing 
but  the  boldness  of  the  enterprise  rendered  suc- 
cess possible.  Brock  formed  his  column  for  as- 
sault. The  ships  were  firing  into  the  fort.  On 
the  American  side  two  companies  of  Michigan 
Capituia-    men    deserted,    and    Hull    sent    a    flag    to    surren- 

tion  of 

Detroit  (Jer.  The  capitulation  included  McArthur  and 
Cass.  "The  treachery  and  cowardice  of  Hull, 
like  that  of  Arnold,  cannot  be  a  matter  of 
blame  to  our  government,"  wrote  Jefferson  to 
Lewis  Cass  on  learning  the  story.  At  the  same 
time  Fort  Dearborn  in  Chicago  was  in  flames. 
Hull  had  ordered  it  evacuated,  and  on  August 
MasM,cre  15^  i]r^Q  garrison  was  attacked  and  murdered  by 
Dearborn  ^  ^SLTge  hodj  of  Indians.  With  it  went  the  last 
vestige  of  American  authority  on  the  lakes. 

Lake  Erie  was  lost  to  the  Americans;  but  on 
Lake  Ontario  new  supplies  and  troops  were  gath- 
ered, the  ships  were  moved  to  Sackett's  Harbor 
and  became  the  nucleus  of  a  fleet.  On  the  night 
of  October  8,  Lieutenant  Elliott  of  the  navy,  with 
one  hundred  men,  cut  out  two  British  vessels  under 
the  guns  of  Fort  Erie,     Van  Rensselaer  formed  a 


1812  Autumn  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  447 

plan  for  a  double  attack,  a  part  of  which  was  to 
land  boats  in  the  rear  of  Fort  George.  He  wasfS**' 
successful.  Captain  Wood  with  a  few  hundred  ^^^^ 
men  climbed  up  an  obscure  path  and  found  them- 
selves thirty  yards  in  the  rear  of  a  battery,  from 
which  Brock  was  watching  the  contest  below. 
While  leading  the  subsequent  attack  "Wood  was 
killed.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Winfield  Scott  volun- 
teered to  take  command  of  Wood's  forlorn  hope. 
At  two  o'clock  a  scarlet  line  of  British  was  seen 
advancing  from  Fort  George,  with  a  thousand 
Indians    against    the    six    hundred   Americans    on 

Death  of 

the  heights.  The  Americans  were  cut  up.  Gen-  Brock 
eral  Brock  was  killed  in  the  action.  Several  hun- 
dred surrendered;  the  rest  were  scalped.  Scott  and 
his  followers  were  pushed  down  to  the  river.  Scott 
saved  his  life  only  by  fighting  his  way  through  the 
Indians  into  the  British  lines. 

The  burden  of  defending  the  border  between  the 
Ohio  and  the  lakes  fell  on  Ohio,  with  its  quarter  of 
a  million  of  people,  and  Kentucky,  with  its  four 
hundred  thousand.  Harrison's  ambition  drew  him 
to  lead  a  new  crusade  for  the  recovery  of  Detroit.  Harrison'* 
Under  the  immediate  advice  of  Henry  Clay  andfh"§o/th- 
others,  he  was  given  command  and  proceeded  to 
organize  a  campaign.  The  news  of  Hull's  surrender 
reached  him  at  Frankfort.  He  was  swept  on  far 
beyond  where  he  thought  it  prudent  to  go  by  the 
current  of  Western  enthusiasm.  The  President  and 
Cabinet  decided  to  give  him  the  command  of  the 
Army  of  the  Northwest  with  ten  thousand  men. 

On  September  27,  he  announced  his  plan  of  cam- 


448  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Autumn  1818 

paign,  which  was  to  concentrate  at  Maumee  Rapids 
and  to  have  2,000  Kentucky  militia  destroy  the  In- 
dian settlements.  But  he  found  himself  unable 
either  to  advance  or  to  retreat.  He  passed  weeks 
searching  in  vain  over  two  hundred  miles  of  dry 
ridges.  Throughout  October  and  November  his 
army  stood  still.  Late  in  1812,  Harrison  wrote  to 
Monroe  that  Maiden,  rather  than  Detroit,  should 
be  the  point  of  attack.     An  ill-conceived  raid  into 

Dearborn's 

invasion  of  Canada,  led  by  General  Dearborn,  turned  out  an 
utter  fiasco.  The  American  troops  fired  into  each 
other,  and  then  beat  a  precipitate  retreat.  The 
Army  of  the  North  went  into  winter  quarters; 
thus  bringing  to  a  close  the  American  land 
campaign    for    that    year. 

Napoleon       Napolcou,  in  Moscow,  for  some  time  nursed  the 

in  Moscow  i  '  ' 

illusion  that  the  fall  of  the  ancient  Russian  capital 
would  be  followed  by  a  speedy  peace.  In  his  ex- 
tremity he  did  not  hesitate  to  make  the  first  over- 
tures.    On  September  20  he  wrote  to  the  Czar: 

His  over-       ' '  M Y  BROTHER :  Having  learned  that  the  brother  of 

tu  res  for  _  -i-ir-  i-»»--  »r  -^ 

peace  youi"  Imperial  Majesty  s  Minister  was  at  Moscow,  I 
sent  for  him  and  had  some  conversation  with  him. 
I  requested  him  to  wait  upon  your  Majesty  and 
acquaint  you  with  my  sentiments.  The  handsome 
and  superb  city  of  Moscow  no  longer  exists.  Ros- 
topchin  has  had  it  burned.  Four  hundred  incen- 
diaries were  taken  in  the  act;  and  having  all 
declared  that  they  had  lighted  the  fire  by  order 
of  that  governor  and  the  director  of  police, 
they  were  shot.  The  fire  at  last  seems  to  have 
ceased.      Three-fourths  of  the  houses  are  burned, 


1812  Autumn  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  449 

and  one-fourth  remain.  Such  conduct  is  atro- 
cious, and  serves  no  purpose.  It  is  the  proce- 
dure followed  since  Sniolensko,  and  it  has  reduced 
600,000  families  to  beggary.  Humanity,  the  in- 
terests of  your  Majesty  and  this  great  city,  de- 
manded that  it  should  have  been  intrusted  to  my 
keeping,  since  it  was  deserted  by  the  Russian  army. 
They  ought  to  have  left  administrations,  magistrates, 
and  civil  guards.  That  is  what  was  done  at  Vienna 
twice,  at  Berlin  and  Madrid;  and  what  we  have 
ourselves  done  at  Milan,  when  Souvarov  entered 
If  I  thought  such  things  were  done  by  your  Maj 
esty's  orders,  I  should  not  write  you  this  letter 
but  I  consider  it  impossible  that,  with  your  prin 
ciples,  heart,  and  sense  of  justice,  you  have  au 
thorized  such  excesses,  unworthy  of  a  great  sov 
ereign  and  a  great  nation. 

"I  made  war  upon  your  Majesty  without  ani- 
mosity. A  letter  from  you  before  or  after  the 
last  battle  would  have  stopped  my  march,  and  I 
should  have  been  ready  to  forego  the  advantage 
of  entering  Moscow.  If  your  Majesty  still  retains 
aught  of  your  former  sentiments,  you  will  take 
this  letter  in  good  part.  In  any  case,  you  must 
feel  indebted  to  me  for  giving  an  account  of  what 
is  taking  place  in  Moscow." 

By  the  advice  of  Stein,  Emperor  Alexander  sent  Napoieon'a 

•^  *^  letter  un- 

no  reply  to  this  letter.  Romantzov,  who  repre-  answered 
sented  the  peace  party  in  the  Czar's  councils,  was 
dismissed  and  Nesselrode  took  his  place.  Stein 
wrote  to  Bernadotte,  who,  by  this  time,  unreserv- 
edly cast  the  lot  of  Sweden  with  that  of  Russia: 
"After  the  wound  of  Moscow  all  our  previous  re- stein's 

comment 

verses  are  but  mere  scratches.      Now,  more   than 
ever,  shall  we  fight  it  out  to  the  bitter  end.     Rather 


4o0  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Autumn  1819 

be  buried  under  the  ruins  of  the  empire  than  come 
to  terms  with  this  new  Attila!" 

After  waiting  several  weel^s  in  ill-concealed  anx- 
iety, Napoleon  despatched  Lauriston  to  Kutusov's 
J^^Hg'^ajjg  headquarters.  Lauriston's  obvious  errand  was  to 
®"*°  arrange  for  the  exchange  of  prisoners.  Inciden- 
tally he  was  to  bring  up  the  topic  of  a  possible 
peace,  and  thus  smooth  the  way  for  it.  Succeed- 
ing in  this,  he  was  authorized  to  ask  for  passports 
to  St.  Petersburg,  there  to  conclude  the  final  peace 
negotiation.  Kutusov  craftly  detained  Lauriston 
until  he  could  get  word  to  St.  Petersburg.  In 
the  meanwhile  he  replied  that  the  word  "peace" 
figured  nowise  in  his  instructions,  nor  did  he  feel 
free  to  conclude  even  an  armistice.  By  way  of  em- 
phasizing this  determination.  Prince  Kurakin  cap- 
tured the  French  convoys  on  the  way  to  Smolensk, 
while  Dorokhov,  with  his  Cossacks,  took  the  French 
stores  at  Vereiya  by  assault.  Altogether  the  Cos- 
sacks, forever  hovering  about  the  French  outposts, 
made  no  less  than  15,000  prisoners.  The  most  seri- 
ofthe        ous  Russian  move  during  this  period  was  the  iunc- 

Cossacks  D  I  J 

tion  of  the  Army  of  the  Danube  under  Admiral 
Tchitchakov,  with  Tormasov's  corps  on  the  Styr, 
and  the  accession  to  the  Russian  ranks  of  Platov's 
twenty-one  fresh  Cossack  regiments,  recruited  from 
the  Don.  At  last  Prince  Volkonsky  arrived  at 
Kutusov's  headquarters  with  this  answer  from 
Alexander: 

"All  the  advices  which  you  have  received  from 
me,  all  the  determinations  expressed  in  the  orders 
addressed  to  you  by  me — everything  ought  to  con- 


1812  Oct.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  451 

vince  you  that  my  resolution  is  immovable.     At  the 
present  moment  no  proposal  of  the  enemy  can  make  ^^^^^°^er 
me  think  of  ending  the  war.     I  shall  not  fail  in  the  ^a"" 
sacred  duty  of  avenging  our  outraged  country." 

Before  this  defiance  could  be  communicated  to  the 
French  Emperor  in  Moscow  Napoleon  had  already 
realized  that  the  game  was  up.  On  October  13,  came 
the  first  snowfall.  To  Napoleon  and  his  veterans 
it  recalled  the  horrors  of  their  first  winter  campaign 
in  Poland.  Within  an  hour  Napoleon  gave  his  or-  ^Icuate 
ders  for  the  evacuation  of  Moscow.  The  advance 
columns  had  scarcely  got  to  the  valley  of  Yinkovo 
when  they  were  attacked  by  the  Cossacks,  supported 
by  Bennigsen's  infantry.     They  came  within  an  ace  Battle  of 

,     1     .  Ill  n-     f  1  •     Vinkovo 

of  being  surrounded  and  cut  on  from  the  mam 
army.  Only  the  splendid  dash  of  Murat  and  Poni- 
atovski's  Polish  lancers  saved  the  French  from  this 
disaster.  As  it  was,  they  lost  1,500  men,  3,000 
horses  and  38  guns.  The  leader  of  the  Russian  at- 
tack, General  Baggovud,  was  killed  in  the  first  on-  SSgovud 
slaught.  Within  two  days  after  this  misfortune 
Napoleon  left  Moscow  with  107,000  men,  15,000 
horses  and  605  guns,  ostensibly  "for  the  pursuit 
of  the  enemy."     The  bitterness  of  his  resentment  resent" 

ment 

found  expression  in  these  final  orders  to  Mortier, 
the  Governor  of  Moscow: 

"The  Duke  of  Trevisa  will  put  on  march,  to-mor- 
row at  daybreak,  all  the  tired  and  lame  soldiers  of 
the  corps  of  Prince  Eckmiihl  and  the  viceroy,  of  the 
foot  cavalry,  and  the  Young  Guard,  and  to  direct 
the  whole  upon  Mojaisk.  On  the  22d  or  23d,  at 
two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  he  will  set  fire  to  the 


452  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Oct.  1812 

brandy  storehouse,  the  barracks,  and  the  public 
buildings,  except  the  Foundling  Hospital.  He 
will  have  the  palace  of  the  Kremlin  set  on  fire. 
He  will  take  care  that  all  the  guns  are  broken 
into  pieces,  that  powder  is  placed  under  the  tow- 
ers of  the  Kremlin,  that  all  the  gun-carriages  are 
broken,  as   well    as  the  wagon  wheels. 

"When  these  orders  are  attended  to,  and  the 
Kremlin  is  on  fire  in  several  places,  the  duke  will 
leave  the  Kremlin,  and  advance  on  the  Mojaisk 
tiofof'^'  ^'oad.  At  four  o'clock,  the  ofiicer  of  artillery  ap- 
paTace"  pointed  to  that  duty  will  blow  up  the  Kremlin,  ac- 
cording to  instructions, 

"On  the  march  he  will  burn  all  carriages  left  be- 
hind, use  every  endeavor  to  bury  all  the  dead,  and 
burn  all  the  muskets  he  can  find.  On  reaching  the 
Gallitzin  Palace,  he  will  take  the  Spanish  and  Bava- 
rians stationed  there,  and  put  fire  to  the  ammuni- 
tion wagons,  and  everything  which  cannot  be  re- 
moved. He  will  collect  all  the  commanders  of 
posts,  and  order  the  garrisons  to  fall  back. 

"He  will  be  particular  to  remain  in  Moscow  till 
he  has  himself  seen  the  Kremlin  blown  up;  and  he 
will  also  set  fire  to  the  Governor's  two  houses  and 
to  that  of  Easomovsky." 

French  Napolcou,  with  his   main  column,  advanced   to- 

demon- 

a-Tinst  "^ard  Kuluga,  hoping  to  defeat  Kutusov  there  and 
Kuiufc-a  ^jj^g  gg^jj^  access  to  the  rich  inner  provinces  of 
Russia.  Kutusov  anticipated  him  by  breaking  up 
his  cantonments  to  meet  the  French  half  way. 
Battle  of  Prince  Eugene's  advance  division  penetrated  as 
far  as  the  Malo-Jaroslavetz  on  the  Lugea,  when 
they  encountered  the  Russian  vanguard.  General 
Dorochov  charged  into  the  French  and  fell  in  the 
mel^e.     A  fierce  all-day  fight  followed.     Six  times 


J8l2  0ct.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  453 

the  town  was  stormed  and  lost  again  by  the  French, 
until  at  nightfall  they  finally  remained  victorious. 
They  had  lost  nearly  10,000  men  and  seven  gen- 
erals. The  Eussian  losses,  too,  were  very  heavy. 
When  Napoleon  arrived  he  was  shocked  at  the 
heaps  of  the  fallen  soldiers  around  the  ruins  of 
the  town.  As  he  was  reconnoitring  along  the 
banks  of  the  Lugea,  that  evening,  there  was  a  sud- 
den cry  of  "Here  come  the  Cossacks,"  and  the  next 

Napoleon's 

moment  he  and  his  followers  were  swept  into  the  narrow 

*■  escape 

river,  with  hand-to-hand  fighting  all  around  them. 
General  Eapp  barely  managed  to  extricate  the  Em- 
peror. That  evening  Napoleon  held  a  council  of 
war  amid  the  charred  ruins  of  the  village  Goro- 
dino,  Murat,  Berthier  and  Bessieres  attended. 
In  the  face  of  their  heavy  losses,  and  the  grow- 
ing lack  of  horses,  the  three  generals  objected 
strongly  to  another  battle,  and  advised  the  aban- 
donment of  Kaluga.  After  they  had  tjieir  say, 
the  Emperor,  with  his  head  in  his  hands,  sat  mute 
for  more  than  an  hour  staring  vacantly  at  a  map 
spread  over  his  knees.  Then  he  sighed  deeply  and 
dismissed  his  marshals  without  announcing  his  in- 
tentions.    Late  in  the  night  he  issued  orders  for  a  Retreat 

from 

retreat  to  Moschaisk.  This  meant  a  march  over  the  Moscow 
same  barren  stretch  along  which  the  French  army 
had  advanced  to  Moscow.  The  greater  part  of  the 
stores  forwarded  from  Moscow  had  been  used  up  in 
the  demonstration  against  Kaluga.  As  a  result  the 
retreat,  from  its  very  start,  was  attended  by  unusual 
hardships.  Horses  fell  right  and  left  and  hundreds 
of  ammunition  wagons  had  to  be  blown  up.     In  the 


454  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Nov.  18ia 

wake  of  the  army,  along  the  stretch  of  forty-eight 
miles  from  Gorodino  to  Smolensk,  Eussian  peasants 
found  no  less  than  208  pieces  of  abandoned  artillery. 
On  October  27,  the  retreating  army,  now  thoroughly 
discouraged  once  more,  came  within  view  of  the  bat- 
tlefield of  Borodino.     There  the  troops  were  demor- 

Horrors  of  '■ 

the  retreat  aiized  by  the  ghastly  spectacle  of  30,000  dead  bodies 
rotting  on  the  ground.  The  marching  soldiers  had 
to  turn  deaf  ears  to  the  heartbreaking  plaints  of  their 
wounded  comrades  bedded  on  the  stone  floors  of  the 
Monastery  of  Kolotsov  near  by.  Already  the  nights 
were  bitterly  cold.  The  Russian  prisoners  were 
stripped  of  their  clothing  and  afterward  murdered 
by  the  fierce  hordes  of  stragglers.  These,  in  turn, 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  pursuing  Cossacks,  or  were 
butchered  by  the  enraged  peasants  if  they  ventured 
beyond  the  protection  of  the  marching  columns. 
Alternating  snowfalls  and  thaws  made  the  roads 
impassable.     On  November  8,  the  rearguard  under 

Trials        Davoust,    having  reached  Viazma  one  day  behind 

rearguard  the  main  column,  was  attacked  by  Platov's  Cos- 
sacks, and  was  all  but  cut  oS.  by  a  flank  attack 
from  Miloradovich's  column.  Davoust  and  his 
stafiE  officers  were  driven  headlong  through  the 
streets  of  the  town  by  the  levelled  spears  of 
the  Cossacks.  Six  thousand  Frenchmen  fell  in 
the  fight.  Previous  to  this  the  constant  skir- 
mishing on  the  rear  had  cost  Davoust  10,000 
men.  Only  the  reluctance  of  the  Russians  to 
follow   in    force   on    the    hunger-stricken   route  of 

rl*eved'  *^®  French  army  had  saved  the  rearguard  from 
early  annihilation.      Now  Napoleon  answered  Da- 


ear 
command 


1812  Winter  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  456 

voust's  despairing  appeals  for  succor  by  relieving 
him  of  command  and  putting  Ney  in  his  place.  It 
proved  the  severest  task  ever  imposed  on  that  hero 
of  a  hundred  battles.  On  November  6,  the  Russian 
winter  set  in  with  a  howling  snowstorm.  It  be-  Ney's  i 
came  frightfully  cold.  Shoes  and  blankets  were 
scarce,  and  there  was  nothing  to  eat  but  horse- 
flesh. The  soldiers  perished  by  thousands  from 
hunger  and  cold.  All  the  bonds  of  discipline 
were  relaxed.  "Au  diable  avec  les  officiers!  II 
n'y  a  que  les  malheureux!"  was  heard  on  all  sides. 
As  one  eye-witness  put  it:  "To  see  men  die  before 
your  eyes  in  this  triumphal  March  of  Death  made 
no  more  impression  than  a  drunken  man  at  a  Po- 
lish country  fair."  Henceforth  the  retreat  became 
a  rout.  Other  no  less  telling  scenes  of  this  famous 
tragedy  of  history  can  be  gleaned  from  the  con- 
temporaneous accounts  of  eye-witnesses  who  have 
given  us  glimpses  of  the  disastrous  march  from  Mos- 
cow, through  Moschaisk,  Gyaatsk,Viazma,  and  Smo- 
lensk, from  the  Lugea  to  the  Dniepr  and  Beresina 
and  thence  to  Vilna  and  the  Niemen.  When  theL^gggg 
Emperor  reached  Smolensk,  only  his  cherished  Old  retreat 
Guard  had  preserved  its  entity.  Of  the  100,000  men 
who  set  out  from  Moscow,  but  40,000  men  remained 
under  arms,  with  only  5,000  mounted  men.  There 
were  30,000  stragglers,  and  350  field  guns  had  been 
abandoned.  Worse  disaster  awaited  Napoleon  at 
Smolensk.  The  stores  had  been  pillaged,  and  noth- 
ing was  left  wherewith  to  feed  the  starving  soldiers. 
The  long-awaited  reinforcements  of  the  Ninth  Corps, 
which  Victor  had  been  bringing  from  Germany,  were 


456  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Winter iSfll 

summoned  away  to  support  Oudinot  and  St.  Cjr's 
corps,    which   were   threatened   on    three   sides  by 
three    Eussian    corps    under   Wittgenstein,    Tchit- 
Austrian     chakov  and  the  auxiliaries  from  Finland.      Napo- 
unreliable  Icou's  Austrian  allies,  under  Prince  Schwarzenberg, 
as  usual,  showed  themselves  averse  to  serious  hos- 
French      tilities,  and  Napoleon  had  to  detach  Prince  Eugene 
vftepsk      to  protect  Vitepsk.     In  spite  of  all  heroic  attempts 
to  reach  there  in  time,  the  viceroy  found  the  place 
already  in  the  hands  of   the  Russians.      Wittgen- 
stein had  established   himself    in   force.      General 
Hilliers,  who  advanced  along  the  Jelnia  road,  was 
surprised    by   the    Russians,    and    lost  2,000  men. 


column      Already  the  Russians  were  threatening  the  French 


Hilliers' 
column 
ambushed 

base  of  supplies  at  Minsk  and  Warsaw.  Worse 
than  that,  they  were  preparing  to  eJSect  a  junction 
between  their  armies  at  the  passage  of  the  Beresina, 
so  as  to  bar  the  French  from  their  only  safe  return 
to  Poland. 

Napoleon  saw  that  there  was  not  a  moment  to 
lose,  and,  leaving  Smolensk,  he  marched  at  once 
for  Vilna.  His  marshals  were  to  follow  with  their 
eT^'uated  respective  corps  in  extended  columns.  Ney,  who 
had  been  fighting  incessantly  since  he  took  com- 
mand of  the  rearguard,  received  orders  to  blow  up 
what  was  left  of  the  ramparts  of  Smolensk,  and  to 
bury  the  remaining  guns.  By  this  time  the  French 
had  only  1,800  horses  left,  all  of  which  were  in- 
trusted to  Latour-Maubourg,  the  leader  of  the  cav- 
alry. Napoleon  and  his  staff  marched  on  foot. 
When  they  reached  Krasnoe  they  found  the  van- 
guard under  Sebastiani,  in  a  church,  beleaguered  by 


1812  winter  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  457 

the  enemy.  Broussier's  division  had  been  all  but 
annihilated.  The  village  of  Kutkovo  had  to  belu"ilovo 
taken  in  the  face  of  severe  artillery  fire,  and  there 
the  fight  was  stubbornly  maintained  while  Napo- 
leon hurried  up  the  other  columns  lagging  behind. 
At  last,  finding  himself  more  and  more  hemmed  in. 
Napoleon  was  constrained  to  cut  his  way  through 
without  regard  for  the  fate  of  Ney  and  his  rear-  Ney's 

<-'  "J  rearguard 

guard.  Luckless  Davoust  was  ordered  to  do  the  ^''^°**°°*"* 
impossible — to  wit,  keep  in  touch  with  Mortier's 
retreating  columns  and  at  the  same  time  wait  for 
Ney  to  come  up.  With  the  Cossacks  closing  in 
upon  him,  Davoust  was  finally  compelled  to  fight 
his  way  along  with  Mortier's  6,000  men.  Thus  the 
remnants  of  the  French  army,  under  constant  fire, 
advanced  to  Liady  and  Orsha. 

When  the  French  rearguard  was  cut  off,  Tor- 
masov  and  General  Wilson,  who  had  been  sent  to 
Eussia  by  the  British  Government,  urged  Kutusov  Kutusov 
to  drive  his  whole  column  of  50,000  men  into  the 
French  flank,  but  they  could  not  move  the  old  gen- 
eral. "You  think  the  old  man  a  fool,"  he  said. 
"You  are  young  and  do  not  understand.  Napo- 
leon is  still  terrible.  If  he  turns  back  we  shall  all 
regret  it.  Let  him  proceed  to  the  Beresina,  ruined 
and  without  an  army,  and  I  shall  be  satisfied." 

Marshal   Ney,   in  his  extremity,  proved  himself  Ney's  un- 
the  resourceful  soldier  he  was  known  to  be.     With-  surprise 
out  warning  of  his  danger — for  all  despatch  riders 
had  been  intercepted  by  the  enemy — he  came  face 
to  face  with  Kutusov's  main  army  before  Krasnoe 
at  nightfall.     A  crushing   repulse  of   his   first  at- 

XlXth  Century— Vol.  1—20 


458  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Winter  1812 

tempt  to  fight  his  way  through  showed  him  how 
thoroughly  he  was  cut  off.  Undismayed,  he  re- 
solved to  swerve  his  column  sidewise  toward  the 
Dniepr,  and  to  cross  that  river,  so  as  to  regain 
the  main  army  by  the  right  bank.  "But  if  the 
Dniepr  is  not  frozen,  what  shall  we  do?"  said 
some  of  his  officers.  "It  will  be  frozen,"  retorted 
the  marshal.  "Besides,  frozen  or  not,  we  shall  do 
as  we  can.  But  we  shall  cross."  For  an  hour 
Ney  drew  his  men  back  toward  Smolensk.  Then 
turning  abruptly  to  the  north  he  marched  at  double 
quick  for  the  Dniepr  with  a  flying  column  of  one 
thousand  picked  men.  At  the  village  of  Syrokenci, 
his  vanguard  picked  up  a  peasant  who  pointed  out 
His  brill-    a    place    for   crossing    the   frozen   river  in   safety. 

iaat  escape 

Under  cover  of  the  night  Ney  succeeded  in  moving 
eight  hundred  of  his  men  over  the  ice,  without 
horses  or  artillery.  He  even  gave  his  stragglers 
three  hours  time  to  come  up,  while  he  wrapped 
himself  in  his  cloak  and  slept  till  the  last  man  was 
over  the  river.  Breaking  the  ice  behind  him,  he 
made  straight  for  Orsha.  The  remainder  of  his 
corps,  11,000  men  in  all,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Rest  of      Russians.     Altogether  the  Russians  captured  26,000 

rearguard 

taken  French  soldiers,  300  officers,  and  28  guns.  Ten 
thousand  Frenchmen  were  killed.  The  total  loss 
of  the  Russians  barely  exceeded  2,000  men. 

At  Orsha,  Napoleon  mustered  his  waning  forces. 
There    remained    but   6,000   effective   men   of    the 

waning'     35,000  Imperial   Guards;    Eugene  had  saved  1,800 

forces 

out   of   43,000;    Davoust   4,000  out  of  70,000,   and 
Ney  750  out  of  40,000.     The  situation  was  critical 


i  t 


§  ^ 
2  S 

^  \ 


1813 Winter  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  459 

in  the  extreme.  Tchitchakov,  with  33,000  Russians, 
lay  in  front  guarding  the  approach  to  the  Beresina, 
Wittgenstein's  corps  occupied  an  impregnable  posi- 
tion on  the  right,  while  Kutusov's  main  army  was 
coming  upon  the  left.  Napoleon,  after  cleverly  Further 
joining  forces  with  Victor  and  Oudinot's  corps  ascutoCf 
well  as  with  Dombrovsky's  Poles,  formed  his  troops 
into  one  strong  column  and  demonstrated  against 
the  lower  Beresina  as  if  to  join  forces  with  Schwar- 
zenberg.  Tchitchakov  speedily  took  alarm,  and, 
drawing  in  his  long-extended  line  on  the  other 
side  of  the  river,  counter-demonstrated  against  the 
apparent  point  of  attack.  In  the  meanwhile  Napo- 
leon sent  all  his  engineers  to  the  upper  Beresina 
with  orders  to  construct  two  bridges  at  any  cost. 
On  the  night  that  they  began  work,  as  it  happened, 
Tschaplitz's  division,  guarding  that  point  of  the 
river,  was  ordered  to  jom  Tchitchakov's  main  army 
on  the  lower  Beresina.  The  next  morning,  thanks 
to  this  stroke  of  fortune,  the  French  engineers, 
under  General  Ebl^,  finished  the  first  bridge,  andofthe"^ 

Beresina 

a  French  brigade,  passing  over,  established  itself 
in  the  deserted  bivouacs  of  the  Russians.  Another 
bridge  for  artillery  and  wagons  was  soon  com- 
pleted. Then  Napoleon  drew  his  columns  together 
at  that  point,  leaving  but  one  division  on  the  lower 
Beresina  to  further  hoodwink  the  enemy.  That 
same  day  the  Russians,  made  aware  of  what  was 
going  on,  attacked  the  French  on  both  sides  of  the 
river.     Wittgenstein   opened    the   affair   by   inter-  PartoM- 


neaux  s 
division 
abandoned 

had  been  left  below  to  fight  it  out  alone.     After 


cepting    the    forlorn    Partouneaux   division   which '^•7'^»o° 


460  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Winter  18M 

standing  his  ground  for  twelve  hours,  General  Par* 
touneaux  and  eight  thousand  men  laid  down  their 
arms.  Tschaplitz's  efforts  to  regain  his  lost  posi- 
tion only  brought  him  great  loss.  The  next  morn- 
ing Tschaplitz  renewed  his  attack,  but  during  the 
night  Ney's  corps  had  crossed  with  the  Imperial 
Guards  and  would  have  routed  Tschaplitz's  divi- 
sion if  the  whole  of  Tchitchakov's  corps  had  not 
come  up  to  his  support.     More  than  10,000  men  on 

Beresin  both  sides  fell  in  the  fight.  During  the  same  day 
Wittgenstein,  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  sig- 
nally defeated  Victor's  corps  and  drove  it  down 
the  slopes  to  the  river's  edge.  While  the  men  were 
struggling  to  get  across  the  bridges,  the  Russian 
batteries  from  the  heights  concentrated  their  force 
on  this  point.  The  artillery  bridge  broke  down 
and  the  horses  and  guns  with  their  gunners  fell 
through  in  an  inextricable  mass.  Artillery,  wag- 
ons, horsemen  and  foot  soldiers  all  commingled  now 
rushed  over  the  other  bridge,  and  hundreds  were 
crushed  to  death  or  pushed  over  the  sides.  Mar« 
shal  Victor  and  his  rearguard  had  to  fight  their 
way  through  the  struggling  hordes  of  their  own 
comrades  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  A  desperate 
throng  of  stragglers  hung  back  on  the  shores  of  the 
river,  wavering  between  the  fears  of  capture  and 
all  but  certain  death  in  the  frightful  crush.     These 

Horrors  of  horrors   continued    throughout    the   night.      When 

the  flight  °  ° 

day  broke  at  last,  and  the  Russian  Cossacks  were 
seen  charging  down  the  hillside.  Marshal  Victor 
abandoned  all  those  that  had  stayed  behind  to 
their  fate,  and  burned  the  bridge  down  before  the 


1812  Winter  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  461 

eyes  of  the  wailing  multitude.  Sixteen  thousand 
prisoners  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Russians.  The 
loss  of  life  during  the  passage  of  the  Beresina  was  at  the 

Beresina 

later  estimated  at  12,000.  Twenty-five  pieces  of 
artillery  had  to  be  abandoned. 

On  December  5,  Napoleon,  dragging  himself  along 
with  his  ragged  bodyguard  of  officers,  the  so-called 
"Sacred  Squadron,"  reached  Smorgoni.  There  he 
received  tidings  of  what  was  to  him  the  most  alarm-  Aiaming 

•■!-»•  1  news  from 

ing  thing  of  all.     A  conspiracy  in  Fans,  working  Pam 
on  a  false   report  of    his   death,    had   shaken   the 
foundations  of  his  throne.     Grathering  his  marshals 
around  him,  the  emperor  explained  the  need  of  his 
immediate    presence  in    Paris  and  bade  them   all 
farewell.     Then   he    dictated   a  final    summary  of 
the  situation,  the   famous   Twenty-eighth   Bulletin 
of  the  Grand  Army,  in  which  he  strove  to  explain  r^^^^  28th 
to  the  world  the  causes  of  the  terrible  tragedy  that  ''""®*'° 
had  overwhelmed  him.     It  ran  in  this  wise: 

"The  army  was  in  good  condition  on  the  6th 
November,  and  till  then  the  weather  had  been 
perfect.  The  cold  began  on  the  7th,  and  from  that 
time  we  lost  every  night  several  hundred  horses, 
which  died  during  bivouac.  Soon  80,000  had  suc- 
cumbed, and  our  cavalry  were  all  on  foot.  On  the 
14th  we  were  almost  without  cavalry,  artillery,  and 
transports.  Without  cavalry  we  could  gain  no  in- 
formation beyond  a  quarter  of  a  league.  Without 
artillery  we  could  not  fight  a  battle,  nor  keep  posi- 
tions steadily.  It  was  necessary  to  march,  to  avoid 
a  battle,  which  the  want  of  supplies  made  undesir- 
able. It  was  necessary  to  occupy  a  certain  space, 
to  avoid   being   taken   in  flank,   and  that  without 


462  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Dec.  18tt 

cavalry  to  gain  information  and  unite  the  columns. 
This  difficulty,  together  with  the  excessive  and  sud- 
den cold,  rendered  our  position  dangerous. 

"The  enemy,  seeing  on  the  roads  traces  of  the 
frightful  calamity  which  struck  the  French  army, 
tried  to  take  advantage  of  it.  Oar  columns  were 
all  surrounded  by  Cossacks,  who,  like  Arabs  in  the 
desert,  carried  off  the  trains  and  carriages  which 
had  separated  from  the  army.  That  despicable 
cavalry,  which  comes  silently,  and  could  not  re- 
pulse a  company  of  light-horse  soldiers,  became 
formidable  under  those  circumstances. 

"The  Cossacks  took  a  number  of  isolated  men, 
engineers  and  wounded  officers  who  exposed  them- 
selves imprudently.  Many  also  lost  their  baggage 
through  the  Cossacks  in  ambush.  Some,  not  suffi- 
ciently steeled  against  adversity,  lost  their  spirits 
and  dreamed  of  misfortune.  The  brave  were  ever 
cheerful. 

"Throughout  all  those  operations  the  Emperor 
has  always  marched  in  the  midst  of  his  guard;  the 
cavalry  under  the  Duke  of  Istria,  and  the  infautry 
under  the  Duke  of  Dantzic.  Our  cavalry  was  de- 
prived of  horses  to  such  an  extent  that  the  officers 
who  were  still  mounted  had  to  be  collectedf  to  form 
four  companies  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  men  each. 
Their  generals  acted  as  captains;  the  colonels  as 
under-officers.  This  sacred  squadron,  commanded 
by  General  Grouchy,  and  under  the  orders  of  the 
King  of  Naples,  did  not  lose  sight  of  the  Emperor 
in  all  his  movements.  The  health  of  his  Majesty 
has  never  been  better." 

Napoioon's      Napoleon  never  admitted  the  full  extent  of  his 

fliKtit  to  . 

France  losscs  in  Russia.  As  he  was  flying  homeward  in 
a  solitary  sleigh  a  few  days  afterward,  General 
St.  Cyr,  his  companion,  remarked:     "We  left  300,- 


1812  Dec.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  463 

000  men  in  Russia."  "No,  no!"  replied  Napoleon, 
"not  so  many  as  that."  Then,  after  a  moment's onfit^ 
reflection,  "Ah!  30,000  at  theMoskova;  7,000  here, ''*"^^'^° 
10,000  there;  and  all  those  who  straj'^ed  on  the 
marches  and  have  not  returned.  Possibly  you  are 
not  far  wrong.  But  then  there  were  so  many 
Germans!" 

The  Germans  did  not  forget  it!     In  one  of  the 
public  squares  of  Munich  stands  a  tall  obelisk  made 
from  the  bronze  of  cannon  captured  in  France.     On 
it  are  inscribed  the  words:  "To  the  30,000  B a vari- Jentrenr 
ans  who  perished  in  Russia." 

On  Napoleon's    departure    the    conduct    of    the 
retreat  was  intrusted  to  Murat.      He   brought   the 
wretched    army  as   far   as  Vilna.      Then   he,    too, 
found  that  important  matters  in  Naples  demanded 
his   presence  there.     Platov's  Cossacks  made  pro- 
longed   stay   in   Vilna    impossible.     In   the  flight 
from  Vilna  to  Kovno  even  the  French  army  funds,  jjyj.at,g 
regimental    eagles   and    the   flags    taken   from   the  Naples'* 
enemy  were  abandoned  by  the  roadside.     Marshal 
Ney  and  old  General  Lefebvre  were  the  only  com- 
manders resolute  enough  to  hold  the  Cossacks  in 
check  while  the  others  fled  onward.     On  December 
12,  the  panic-stricken  soldiers  arrived  at  Kovno  on 
the  Niemen.     As    the   covering   force    under  Ney 
entered   the  gate  of  the  city  it  was  seen  that  the 
remnant   of   the   Imperial   Guard   consisted  of   but 
three   hundred   men.     The   next   morning   the   ap- 
proach  of    the  Russians  drove  the  French  out  of  French 
Kovno.      Pell-mell  they  crossed   the   bridge  across  of  Russia 
the  Niemen  and  thus  quitted  the  soil  of   Russia. 


464  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Dec.  1812 

Before  abandoning  Kovno,  Ney  seized  a  musket, 
and,  with  a  corporal's  guard,  held  the  bridge-head 
against  the  forerunners  of  the  Cossack  vanguard- 
When  the  last  French  column  had  retired  in  safety, 
Ney  threw  his  musket  into  the  Niemen  and   left 

stand  the  ramparts.  He  was  the  last  combatant  soldier 
of  the  Grand  Army  who  left  Eussia.  The  next 
morning  he  walked  into  the  last  French  outpost  in 
the  Prussian  village  of  Gambinnen,  empty-handed, 
ragged  and  unkempt.  To  the  challenge  of  the 
sentry  he  replied:  "Here  comes  the  rearguard  of 
the  Grand  Armyl"  At  Koenigsberg,  the  Eussians, 
assisted  by  the  friendly  attitude  of  General  York 
and  his  corps  of  Prussians,  inflicted  a  last  defeat 

inv^e       on  their  fallen  foe.     This  brought  the  total  losses 

Prussia  ,         „ 

of  the   French   army  up  to  652,048  men,   167,000 

horses,    12,000    guns,    and    12,000,000    francs    in 

money.      When    Emperor    Alexander    arrived    in 

Vilna  on   December  21,    15,000  dead    bodies   still 

littered  the  ice  of   the  Niemen.     "What  frightful 

horrors  I"  exclaimed  Von  Arndt.     "This  is  not  the 

work  of   Kutusov  or   of  Wittgenstein.     It  is  the 

finger  of  God,"  said  the  Czar.     But  the  Eussians, 

too,  had  suffered  almost  corresponding  losses.     The 

long-drawn    pursuit   cost   Kutusov's    corps   62,000 

men,  of  whom  48,000  lay  in   hospital.      The   total 

Eussian  losses  were  later  estimated  at  300,000  men. 

In  all  it  is  safe  to  state  that  the  wars  of  1812,  in- 

A  million    eluding  the  Peninsular  campaign,  and  the  American 

nflced*'^     war,  cost  the   lives   of  over  a  million   men.     But 

greater  hecatombs  were  still  to  be  demanded. 

When  Napoleon  arrived  in  Pans  his  mere  pres- 


1812  Dec.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  465 

ence  quelled  the  commotion  caused  by  the  disas- 
trous news  from  Russia,  and  the  all  but  successful  pn^ch 
cowp-dC etat  of  Malet.  The  Emperor's  first  measure  ^^'^^ 
was  to  call  for  a  new  levy  of  350,000  conscripts. 
Next  he  stamped  out  the  last  dying  embers  of  the 
conspiracy  aimed  at  his  throne.  Malet  and  the 
fourteen  prisoners  taken  with  him  were  condemned 
to  death  and  executed.  What  alarmed  Napoleon 
the  most  in  the  whole  afEair  was  that  in  the  crisis  cospiracy 
of  the  attempted  coup-d'etat  his  son  seemed  to  have 
been  overlooked  by  common  consent.  Every  one 
took  for  granted  that  the  Emperor's  death,  as  falsely 
reported,  would  render  a  new  election  indispensa- 
ble. "What!"  exclaimed  Napoleon,  again  and 
again,  "did  nobody  think  of  my  son,  my  wife,  or 
the  constitution  of  the  empire?"  He  took  instant 
measures  to  secure  his  throne  by  additional  de- 
crees of  the  Senate  with  provisions  for  all  contin- 
gencies.     This  done   he   threw    himself  heart    and  The  fifth 

coalitiott 

soul  into  preparations  for  the  inevitable  war  of  the 
coming  year.  Already  the  fifth  coalition  against 
him  was  forming. 


466  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Jan.  1813 


burg 


1813 

THE  first  ally  lost  to  Napoleon  was  Prussia. 
From  the  first  the  Prussian  force  of  auxilia- 
ries under  General  York  of  Wartenburg  had 
been  a  source  of  misgiving  to  the  French.  When 
York  succeeded  Gravert  in  command,  he  insisted 
on  being  treated  as  an  independent  commander  by 
Marshal  Macdonald.     As  such  the  Prussian  general 

York  of  ° 

warten-  distinguished  himself  in  two  actions  against  heavy 
•Kussian  odds  at  Eckau  and  at  Bauske.  When  the 
tide  turned  against  the  French  the  attitude  of  the 
Prussians  became  a  matter  of  solicitude  to  both 
^•«ides.-  Napoleon  acknowledged  York's  indepen- 
dent rank,  and  allowed  Macdonald  to  offer  the 
Prussian  commander  a  marshalship,  with  a  gratu- 
ity of  20,000  francs.  On  the  Russian  side.  General 
Essen,  Count  Pelucci  and  Prince  Repnin,  each  in 
turn,  made  personal  efforts  to  induce  York  to  throw 
his  Prussian  corps  into  the  balance  against  Napo- 
leon. In  December,  when  the  ruin  of  the  French 
cause  was  plain,  the  position  of  the  Prussian  aux- 
iliaries was  precarious,  and  York  began  to  waver. 
In  a  despatch  to  the  King  of  Prussia  he  explained 
matters  in  detail,  and  asked  the  king's  permission 
to  break  off  his  allegiance  to  the  French.  At  the 
same  time,  as  the  king  well  knew,  Russian  confi. 


1813  Jan.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  467 

deatial  envoys  in  Vienna  were  doing  their  utmost 
to  induce  Emperor  Francis  and  Metternich  to  cut 
loose  from  France.  Accordingly,  York  received 
•word  to  accommodate  himself  to  circumstances 
until  the  political  atmosphere  had  cleared,  and, 
above  all,  not  to  kick  over  the  traces  ("Nach  den 
Umstanden  handeln,  aber  nicht  liber  die  Schnur 
hauen").  For  York  this  was  not  so  easy.  When  j 
Macdonald  with  his  corps  fell  back  on  Dantzig  late 
in  December,  York  and  his  Prussians  brought  up 
the  rear.  By  a  well-fought  action  before  Tilsit  the  cornlrt^ 
Eussians  succeeded  in  cutting  off  York's  rearguard 
from  Macdonald's  main  body.  The  Eussian  com- 
mander, General  Dibitch,  asked  for  an  interview 
between  the  lines.  York  was  informed  of  the 
general  Eussian  orders  to  avoid  active  hostilities 
against  Prussia,  and  was  asked  to  enter  into  an 
arrangement  for  full  neutrality.  The  next  morn- 
ing Count  Pelucci,  the  Governor  of  Eiga,  appeared 
with  a  personal  letter  of  the  Czar,  in  which  Alexan- 
der promised  to  fight  for  the  deliverance  of  Prussia 
as  well  as  of  Eussia,  if  the  Prussian  troops  fought 
on  his  side.  A  last  reconnoissance  convinced  York 
thathjs^  corps  was  utterly  cut  off  and  surrounded. 
After  a  moment  of  reflection  York  said  quietly; 
"You  have  got  me.  To-morrow  I  shall  enter  your 
lines."  York's  officers  and  men  received  the  news 
with  Wild  loy.     JNext  mornins;,  York  and  Di bitch  tion of 

,  ,  .  Tauroggea 

met  at  the  mill  of  Tauroggen,  and  signed  a  con- 
vention whereby  neutrality  was  declared  between 
Prussia  and  Eussia.  The  Eussians  were  privileged 
to  move  their  troops  through  Prussia.     In  case  of 


468  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Jan.  1813 

repudiation  of  the  contract,  York  and  his  officers 
were  paroled  not  to  serve  against  Kussia  for  a 
period  of  three  months.  In  January,  York's  troops, 
escorted  by  Russian  Cossacks,  entered  Tilsit,  and 
effected  a  jun'ction  with  a  detached  body  of  Prus- 
sians, under  Massenbad.  This  practically  deliv- 
Bian'defec- ^^^^  Koenigsberg  over  to  the  Russians.  The 
^^°^  German    revolt    against    Napoleon    had    begun. 

York  thus  reported  his  act  to  the  King  of 
Prussia:  "1  lay  my  head  at  the  feet  of  your 
majesty.  If  I  have  erred,  1  should  gladly  die, 
in  the  consciousness  that  I  have  not  sinned  either 
as  a  faithful  subject  or  a  true  Prussian,  Now  or 
never  is  the  time  when  your  Majesty  can  tear  loose 
from  the  haughty  demands  of  an  ally  whose  inten- 
tions in  regard  to  Prussia  have  ever  been  a  matter 
of  serious  concern.  These  considerations  governed 
my  conduct.  God  grant  it  be  for  the  good  of  the 
Fatherland."  King  Frederick  William  of  Prussia, 
surrounded  as  he  was  by  French  troops  quartered 

York         in  Berlin,  repudiated  York.     He  declared  the  con- 
repudiated  *■ 

vention  of  neutrality  null  and  void.  York  was 
summoned  before  a  court-martial.  Thanks  to 
the  vigilance  of  the  Russian  outposts,  the  king's 
couriers  bearing  these  orders  were  not  permitted 
to  reach  the  Prussian  general.  Failing  to  receive 
any  answer,  York  could  only  surmise  his  predica- 
ment. As  a  soldier  of  the  old  school,  who  had 
once  before  il?een  cashiered  for  criticising  a  supe- 
rior officer,  Ydrk  took  it  hard.  "With  bleeding 
heart,"  he  wrote)/'I  burst  the  bonds  of  obedience; 
and  carry  on  the  ^war  upon  my  own  responsibility. 


,813  Jan.  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  469 

The  army  desires  war  with  France;  the  nation  de- 
sires it;  the  king  himself  desires  it,  but  his  will 
ig  not  free.  The  army  must  make  his  will  free." 
/  Stein,  Moritz,  von  Arndt,  and  other  Prussian 
/patriots,   returning  from  exile  to  Russia,   hastened 

/    ,to   Koenigsberg   to   strengthen    York's   resolution. 

'^'  fS'tein  bore  a  commission  from  the  Czar  to  assume  ^^®i'^ 
'the  government  of  the  Prussian  province  occupied 
by  Russian  troops,  and  raised  a  Prussian  army  for 
the  war  with  France.  Stein's  powers  were  to  con- 
tinue until  the  Czar  could  come  to  some  arrange- 
ment with  the  King  of  Prussia. 

Armed  with  this  commission,  Stein  appeared  in 
Koenigsberg  and  boldly  convoked  an  assembly  of 
the  people  to  take  proper  measures  for  the  Father- 
land independent  of  their  king.  York,  though  de- 
clining to  act  as  chairman,  was  induced  to  give 
some  countenance  to  the  movement.  On  the  prom- 
ise of  Stein's  abstention  from  further  Russian  in- 
terference, he  entered  the  house  and  spoke  a  few 
words.  York's  undisguised  declaration  of  war  was 
received  with  unbounded  enthusiasm.  Forty  thou- 
sand Prussians  flocked  to  arms  from  the  province 
of   East   Prussia   alone.     Recruits  began  to  arrive  Germans 

°  aroused 

from  all  other  parts  of  Germany.  This  unprece- 
dented spectacle  of  the  people  working  out  their 
salvation  without  help  from  the  crown,  decided  the 
timid  Prussian  king  and  his  councillor,  Hardenberg. 
Moreover,  the  Russians  were  advancing  toward  the 
Oder.  On  January  25,  the  royal  family  removed 
from  Berlin  to  Breslau.  This  put  the  king  beyond 
the   power   of    the   French    troops   at   Berlin,   and 


470 


A    HISTORY   OF    THE 


Feb.  1813 


Treaty  of 
Ealisch 


War  prrp- 
aratiODS 


brought  him  so  much  nearer  to  Alexander.  York's 
defection  was  condoned.  Warlike  preparations  be- 
gan at  once.  Swarms  of  Prussian  volunteers  bound 
for  East  Prussia  passed  through  Berlin,"  shaking 
their  fists  at  the  French  soldiers.  On  February  3, 
appeared  a  royal  edict  calling  for  volunteers.  A 
week  later  all  the  Prussian  men  between  the  ages 
of  seventeen  and  fifty  were  called  to  arms.  One- 
fourth  of  the  entire  population  responded  to  the 
call.  General  Knesebeck  was  sent  to  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Czar  to  arrange  for  military  co-  : 
operation.  The  Czar  sent  Stein  to  Breslau  with"' 
a  Eussian  plenipotentiary  to  conclude  the  terms. 
Qa,  JFebruary  27,  the  treaty  of  Kalisjch  was  signed.  . 
Eassia  undertook  not  to  lay  down  her  arms  until 
the  Prussian  state  should  be  restored  to  the  same 
strength  of  area  and  population  which  it  had  be- 
fore 1806.  Eussia  reserved  to  herself  the  lost  prov- 
inces of  Prussian  Poland,  on  a  promise  that  Prus- 
sia should  indemnify  herself  by  an  equal  amount 
of  territory  taken  from  western  Germany.  This  ar- 
rangement, though  deplored  by  the  foremost  Prus- 
sian statesmen  of  the  time,  contained  the  germ 
of  Prussia's  coming  leadership  in  German  affairs. 
Prussia's  formal  declaration  of  war  was  still  with- 
held until  her  feverish  military  preparations  could 
be  perfected.  The  Eussians,  on  the  other  hand, 
sure  of  popular  support  throughout  Prussia,  carried 
the  war  into  Germany  with  undiminished  vigor. 
The  French  rearguard  under  Eugene  Beauharnais 
had  to  abandon  the  strong  line  of  the  Oder  and 
fall   back  to  Berlin   and   the  Elbe.     On   February 


1813  March  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  471 

20,  the  first  Kussian  Cossacks  appeared  before  Ber- 
lin and  fought  in  the  outskirts.  Within  a  week  the 
French  had  to  quit  the  capital,  closely  pursued  by 
the  Russian  vanguard.  Some  days  later,  Wittgen- 
stein, who  took  command  after  the  expiration  of 
aged  Kutusov  at  Bautzen,  entered  Berlin  with  the 
Russian  infantry.  On  March  _  17,  York  and  his^^^Jf^'" 
Prussian  corps  made  their  appearance.  They  were 
received  with  tumultuous  joy.  On  the  same  day 
came^  the^king's  long  deferred  declara1iion,of^^ 
It  was  the  famous  appeal  "To  my  People,"  which 
stirred  the  Germans  of  those  days  to  their  depths: 

"For  my  faithful  people,  as  for  all  Germans,  there 
is  no  need  of  justification  for  the  war  which  now  be- 
gins. The  causes  for  war  are  clear  to  the  unblinded 
eyes  of  Europe. 

"We  succumbed  to  the  overwhelming  numbers  of  ^edenck 
France.  A  peace  which  deprived  me  of  half  my  sub-  appeal 
jects  brought  us  no  blessings.  It  inflicted  wounds 
deeper  than  those  of  war.  The  marrow  of  the  land 
was  sucked  out  by  our  invaders.  The  strongholds 
of  the  country  were  held  by  the  enemy.  Agricul- 
ture and  the  arts  were  laid  low.  The  freedom  of 
commerce  ceased  and  the  sources  of  trade  and  pros- 
perity were  dried  up.  The  country  became  a  prey 
to  robbers. 

"By  a  strict  fulfilment  of  my  pledges  I  hoped  to 
make  things  easier  for  my  people  and  to  convince 
the  French  emperor  that  it  was  to  his  own  advan- 
tage to  leave  to  Prussia  her  independence.  My 
honest  intentions  were  frustrated  through  his  pride 
and  faithlessness.  It  was  plain  that  the  emperor's 
treaties,  worse  still  than  his  wars,  aimed  at  our  sure 
perdition.  The  moment  has  come  when  we  can  no 
longer  be  deceived  about  our  condition. 


472  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  March  1813 

"Men  of  Brandenburg,  of  Prussia,  Silesia,  Pome- 
rania  and  Lithuania!  You  Jsnow  what  you  have 
suffered  for  nearly  seven  years.  You  know  what 
your  sorry  lot  will  be  if  you  do  not  wage  this  war 
with  honor.  Remember  your  forefathers!  Remem- 
ber the  great  Elector,  and  Frederick  the  Great!  Re- 
call your  blessed  privileges  for  which  our  ancestors 
paid  with  their  blood,  freedom  of  conscience,  honor, 
independence,  commerce,  art  and  science.  Behold 
the  great  example  of  our  powerful  allies,  the  Rus- 
sians! Behold  the  men  of  Spain,  of  Portugal! 
Lesser  peoples  than  we  have  striven  for  the  same 
ends  against  mightier  foes  and  they  have  won.  Re- 
member the  heroes  of  Switzerland  and  the  Nether- 
lands! 

"It  is  the  last  decisive  fight  that  we  make  for 
our  existence,  our  independence  and  our  property. 
There  is  no  alternative  but  peace  with  honor  or 
glorious  defeat.  Even  this  can  be  endured  so  it 
be  in  honor,  for  without  honor  life  is  nothing  for 
a  Prussian  and  a  German.  Yet  we  can  trust  to 
the  future.  God  and  our  strong  will  must  bring 
victory  to  our  just  cause.  After  victory  we  shall 
have  glorious  peace  and  the  return  of  happy  times. 

"Frederick  William." 


reserves 


Military  On  the  Same  day  that  Frederick  William  issued 
his  proclaniatioh  to  the  people,  he  de^rged  the  for- 
mation of  the  great  military  reserves  known  as 
the  Landwehr  and  the  Landsturm.  As  the  result 
of  these  measures  and  Scharnhorst's  farsighted  mili- 
tary preparations,  100,000  men  were  joined  to  Prus- 
sia's standing  army  of  45,000.  Scharnhorst,  against 
the  advice  of  York  and  others,  gave  to  Bliicher  the 
chief  command.  A  general  feeling  of  enthusiasm 
swept  through   the  country   like    unto   that  which 


1813  March  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  473 

created  the  armies  of  the  French  Revolution. 
Beardless  youths  and  gray  haired  men  flocked 
to  the  colors.  Clergymen,  professors,  and  the 
students  of  the  universities  shouldered  muskets. 
Even  women  found  their  way  into  the  ranks,  arma^'^^" 
Other  women  contributed  their  jewelry  and  trin- 
kets, receiving  in  turn  delicately  wrought  orna- 
ments of  iron,  with  the  inscription:  "I  gave  gold 
for  iron;  1813."  The  king  instituted  the  order  of 
the  Iron  Cross,  to  be  awarded  for  acts  of  bravery 
in  battle.  Thus  a  fresh  impulse  was  given  to  the 
wrought-iron  industry  of  Berlin,  which  has  since 
been  carried  so  far.  Already  the  peasantry  was 
rising  against  its  French  oppressors,  and  flying  de- 
tachments of  volunteers  under  Dornberg  and  Liit- 
zow  carried  raids  into  the  French  districts.  The 
poet.  Koerner,  himself  a  soldier,  appealed  to  the  patriotic 
people  in  strains  of  patriotic  ardor  that  have  lived 
to  the  present  day.     His  song 

"The  people  rise, 
The  storm  breaks  loose," 

or  the  stirring  lines  on  "Liitzow's  Raid,"  were  sung 
from  one  end  of  Germany  to  the  other. 

"What  is  the  German  Fatherland?"  wrote  Arndt, 
the  people's  poet  from  Riigen: 

"Where'er  resounds  the  German  tongue,  Arndt's 

Where'er  its  hymns  to  God  are  sung! 
That  land  is  the  land, 

Brave  German,  that,  thy  Fatherland! 
"That  is  the  German  Fatherland! 

Where  scorn  shall  foreign  triflers  brand, 

Where  all  are  foes  whose  deeds  offend, 

Where  every  noble  soul's  a  friend: 
Be  this  the  land, 

All  Germany  shall  be  the  landl" 


474  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Feb.  1813 

Other  German  poets  joined  in  the  chorus  with  the 
uumoved    exception  of  Goethe,  who  said:  "Well,  well,  shake 
your  chains!     That  man  Napoleon  is  too  strong  for 
you.     You  will  not  break  them." 

Napoleon,  in  Paris,  faced  the  gathering  storm  with 

a  bold  front.     In  reply  to  a  letter  of  warning  from 

Napoleon's Pavoust  he  wrotc:   "Pah!  Germans  never  can  be- 

measures 

come  Spaniards."  Yet  he  lost  no  time  in  gathering 
his  new  army  of  350,000  conscripts  and  27,000  fresh 
horses.  Money  was  raised  by  floating  paper  cur- 
rency. To  allay  the  growing  resentment  arising 
Papal  Con- among  the  French  peasantry,  he  went  to  conciliate 

cordat 

the  Pope  in  his  prison  palace  at  Avignon,  and 
greeted  him  by  the  name  of  Father.  Pius  VII.  was 
set  at  liberty  in  Savona,  and  Napoleon  consented 
to  come  to  an  agreement  with  him  in  which  both 
parties  yielded  some  of  their  long  contested  points. 
On  February  13,  Napoleon  opened  the  Corps  Legis- 
latif  with  this  characteristic  speech: 

Acharac-  "GENTLEMEN — The  war  again  begun  in  the  north 
a^dreM  of  Europc  presented  to  the  English  a  favorable  op- 
portunity for  their  plans;  but  all  their  hopes  have 
fallen  to  the  ground.  Their  army  failed  before  the 
citadel  of  Burgos,  and  after  suffering  great  losses 
was  obliged  to  evacuate  the  territory  of  all  the 
Spains.  I  myself  entered  Russia.  Everywhere 
our   eagles   triumphed. 

"But  the  excessive  and  premature  rigor  of  the 
winter  subjected  my  army  to  a  frightful  calamity. 
In  a  few  nights  I  saw  everything  changed,  and  1 
suffered  great  losses.  They  would  have  broken  my 
heart  if,  at  such  an  important  time,  I  had  been  ac- 
cessible to  other  sentiments  than  the  interest,  the 
glor}'',  and  the  future  of  my  peoples. 


1813  Feb.  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  475 

"In  view  of  the  evils  which  have  weighed  upon 
us,  the  joy  of  England  has  been  great  and  her  hopes 
unbounded.  She  offered  oar  fairest  provinces  as  a 
reward  for  treason;  she  laid  down  as  a  condition  of 
peace  the  dismemberment  of  this  beautiful  empire. 
It  was,  in  other  words,  a  proclamation  of  perpetual 
warfare. 

"The  agents  of  England  are  propagating  among 
all  our  neighbors  the  spirit  of  revolt  against  the 
sovereigns.  England  wishes  to  see  the  whole,  con- 
tinent a  prey  to  civil  war  and  all  the  terrors  of  an- 
archy; but  Providence  has  marked  herself  to  be  the 
first  victim  of  anarchy  and  civil  war. 

"I  have  myself  personally  drawn  up  with  the  Pope 
a  Concordat  which  puts  a  stop  to  all  the  difficulties 
which  had  unfortunately  arisen  in  the  Church.  The 
French  dynasty  reigns  and  will  reign  in  Spain.  The 
Russians  will  go  back  to  their  frightful  climate. 

"I  wish  for  peace;  it  is  necessary  for  the  world. 
Four  times  since  the  rupture  which  followed  the 
Treaty  of  Amiens  I  have  offered  it  in  a  formal 
manner.  I  snail  never  make  any  peace  except  an 
honorable  one — one  suited  to  the  interests  and  great- 
ness of  my  empire.  So  long  as  this  murderous  war 
continues,  my  peoples  ought  to  be  ready  for  sacri- 
fices of  every  kind;  for  a  bad  peace  would  cause  us 
to  lose  everything,  even  hope  itself;  and  everything 
would  be  compromised,  even  the  prosperity  of  our 
grandchildren." 

To  Emperor  Francis  of  Austria,  Napoleon  wrote: 

"I  shall  take  no  steps  toward  peace,  because  the  Austrian 

,  .  ,         .  Ill  mediation 

last  Circumstances  having  turned  to  the  advantage  invited 
of  Russia,  it  belongs  to  her  Cabinet  to  take  steps, 
if  they  understand  the  position  of  affairs.     Never- 
theless, I  shall  not  object  to  those  made  by  your 
Majesty." 


476 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


April  1813 


The  fifth 
coalition 


Battle  of 
Mockeru 


Weissen- 
fels 


Gross- 
Oorshea 


It  was  too  late.  Austria  was  already  being  irre- 
sistibly drawn  into  the  new  coalition  against 
France,  for  which  England  as  heretofore  had  to 
furnish  the  money.  In  addition,  the  British  Min- 
istry agreed  to  furnish  30,000  troops.  For  the 
nonce  Austria  remained  neutral,  but  the  hasty  re- 
turn of  Schwarzenberg's  corps  and  the  mobilization 
of  Austria's  remaining  troops  revealed  to  Napoleon 
that  nothing  but  a  victorious  campaign  could  keep 
his  newly  acquired  father-in-law  off  his  heels. 

Bliicher's  new  Prussian  corps  had  not  yet  formed 
a  junction  with  Wittgenstein  when  Napoleon  re- 
turned to  the  fray  at  the  head  of  160,000  men.  He 
advanced  over  the  familiar  country  of  Erfurt  and 
Merseburg,  headed  straight  for  Saxony;  for  the  fate 
of  Saxony  hung  in  the  balance.  Already  Bliicher 
had  entered  Dresden  at  the  heels  of  a  retreating 
French  garrison,  and  Wittgenstein,  pushing  for- 
ward to  Magdeburg,  had  repulsed  40,000  French- 
men at  Mockern.  Now  Napoleon  threw  his  160,000 
men  into  the  path  of  the  80,000  allies  and  marched 
on  Leipzig.  On  the  first  day  of  May  Marshal  Ney, 
with  40,000  men,  overwhelmed  Winzingerode's  Rus- 
sian vanguard  at  Weissenfels  and  forced  him  back. 
Marshal  Bessi^res,  the  famous  French  cavalry  chief- 
tain, lost  his  life  in  this  fight.  Wittgenstein  brought 
the  Russian  column  up  and  fell  on  Ney's  flank  at 
Gross-Gorschen.  The  fight  lasted  nearly  all  day, 
and  gave  the  raw  Prussian  recruits  a  chance  to 
measure  their  strength  against  the  equally  youth- 
ful new  conscripts  of  France.  Unfortunately  for  the 
Russians,  the  affair  was  dragged  out  by  Wittgen- 


j813May  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  477 

Stein,  who  ordered  up  one  brigade  after  another  in- 
stead of  massing  their  attack  at  Liitzen.  Bliicher's^"*^®" 
slowness  in  bringing  up  his  Prussians,  owing  to  the 
negligence  of  a  despatch  rider,  gave  Napoleon  a 
chance  to  swing  his  long  lines  around  the  enemy's 
ends.  The  Russians  would  have  been  encircled  had 
Bliicher  not  arrived  in  time  to  interpose  his  Prus- 
sian reserves.  Firing  incessantly  until  after  dark, 
the  allies  finally  retired  in  good  order.  On  the 
evening  of  the  bloody  engagement  of  May  2,  the 
Prussian  Hussars  under  Ziethen,  supported  by  a 
Cossack  brigade,  tried  to  pierce  the  French  centre 
with  a  fierce  night  attack,  but  were  repulsed  by 
Napoleon's  well-concentrated  artillery  fire.  They  Death  of 
captured  some  guns,  but  suffered  irreparable  losshoret^  ' 
in  the  death  of  Scharnhorst.  Further  away  a  Prus- 
sian division,  during  this  same  time,  stormed  Halle, 
but  had  to  fall  back  after  the  main  army,  lest  it 
be  cut  off.  After  a  sharp  rear  action  at  Koldiz,  theKoWiz 
allies  gained  Dresden  and  made  a  stand  at  Bautzen. 
An  attempted  French  diversion  against  Berlin  was 
frustrated  by  Barclay  de  Tolly  and  York  at  Koe-  Koenigs- 
nigswarte  and  Weissig,  and  both  armies  drew  in 
their  reserves  for  the  coming  battle.  The  accession  ^^'^^^s 
of  two  Bavarian  and  Saxon  corps  brought  Napo- 
leon's fighting  force  up  to  150,000,  whereas  the 
allies  had  90,000  men.  On  May  19,  Napoleon  ad- 
vanced on  Bautzen  and  delivered  a  determined 
attack  on  Bliicher's  right  wing.  It  resulted  in  a 
drawn  fight  with  heavy  losses  on  both  sides.  The 
next  morning  the  engagement  became  general. 
During    the    battle    the   French   crossed   the   river 


478  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  May  1813 

Spree  under  fire  and  made  a  combined  attack  on 
the  centre.  The  fight  was  kept  up  as  long  as  the 
French  infantry  could  see  to  shoot,  until  Napoleon 
had  accomplished  his  object  of  making  the  enemy 
strengthen  his  centre  at  the  expense  of  his  right 
wing.  Under  cover  of  darkness,  Ney's  corps  made 
a  long  night  march  to  get  around  Bliicher's  right 
end.  Early  the  next  morning.  Napoleon  made  a 
sharp  attack  on  the  Russian  left  under  Milarado- 
vitch,  and,  meeting  with  determined  resistance  there, 
followed  it  up  by  throwing  Macdonald's  and  Oudi- 
not's  divisions  against  the  Russian  centre,  where 
Alexander  and  his  suite  had  their  headquarters. 
While  the  battle  was  on.  Napoleon  listened  anx- 
Eautzen  iously  for  the  sound  of  Ney's  cannon  on  the  ex- 
treme right.  Ney's  instructions  had  been  to  work 
around  the  enemy's  flank  and  to  attack  in  force  no 
later  than  noon.  At  the  early  hour  of  ten,  the  dis- 
tant roar  of  artillery  on  the  enemy's  right  flank  and 
rear  announced  to  Napoleon  that  Ney  had  carried 
out  his  difficult  manoeuvre.  The  Emperor  immedi- 
ately despatched  a  courier  to  Paris  with  a  pencilled 
note  to  Marie  Louise  proclaiming  a  sure  victory. 
Then  he  galloped  over  to  his  left  to  press  home 
Ney's  success.  Ney  had  Bliicher  surrounded  on 
three  sides,  and  beset  the  Prussians  so  fiercely  that 
Bliicher  had  to  call  for  reinforcements  wherewith 
to  protect  his  retreat.  As  soon  as  these  manoeuvres 
had  the  desired  effect  of  weakening  the  Russian 
centre.  Napoleon  hurled  his  whole  mass  of  76,000 
men  into  the  centre  of  the  enemy's  line.  The  re- 
sult was  an  almost  instantaneous  retreat  all  along 


1813  May  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  479 

the  line.  The  Eussiaas  fell  back  on  Hochkirch  and 
Lobau,  while  the  Prussians  fought  their  way  back 
to  Wurschen  and  Weissenburg,  holding  that  posi- 
tion through  the  night.  The  next  morning  the  al- 
lies, in  the  face  of  Kapoleon's  continued  advance, 
fell  back  steadily  into  Silesia  behind  the  strong  line 
of  the  fortress  Schweidnitz  and  the  ridges  of  the 
Eiesengebirge,  where  they  could  readily  join  hands 
with  the  Austrian  forces  massed  on  the  frontier  of 
Bohemia.  Napoleon  entered  Breslau.  The  con- 
tinued fighting  of  the  last  five  days  had  cost  him 
25,000  men.  The  hospitals  of  Dresden  were  filled 
with  18,000  wounded  men.  Generals  Bruyeres  and 
Kirchner  were  among  the  dead,  and  Marshal  Duroc 
was  killed  close  to  the  Emperor's  side.  They  were 
buried  without  religious  honors.  "I  will  have  no 
priest!"  said  Napoleon.  When  the  pursuit  came 
to  an  end,  the  Emperor  exclaimed  angrily  to  his 
surviving  marshals:  "Quoi?  No  result  after  such  Tories 
a  massacre  ?  No  prisoners,  no  guns,  nor  standards  ? 
They  leave  me  not  even  a  nail!" 

The  threatening  presence  of  the  Austrian  troops 
caused  Napoleon  anxiety  to  ascertain  the  precise 
intentions  of  Austria  before  exposing  his  flank  and 
long-drawn  communications  to  an  attack  from  that 
quarter.  An  armistice  was  proposed  and  gladly  , 
entered  into  by  both  sides.     The  convention  was 

Truce  of 

signed  at  jPlesvy:ilZ,^on  June  4,  and  all  hostilities ^^^^'tz 
were  suspended  for  six  weeks.    The  struggle  shifted 
instantly  from  the  battlefield  to  the  diplomatic  chan- 
celleries at  Vienna.     To  win  the  support  of  Austria 
was  alike  the  endeavor  of  Napoleon  and  of  the  al- 


Barren  vio« 


480 


A    HISTORY    OF   THE 


June  1818 


Conven- 
tion of 
Reichen- 
bach 


British 
subsidies 


Denmark 

with 

France 


Austria  in 
balance 


lies.  Even  the  British  Ministry  awoke  to  the  exi- 
gencies of  the  situation.  Shortly  after  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  armistice,  Sir  Charles  Stewart  and  the 
Earl  of  Cathcart  appeared  at  the  allied  headquar- 
ters. A  formal  agreement  was  reached  by  the  con- 
vention of  Reichenbach  on  the  14th  of  June.  In 
this  treaty  Great  Britain  agreed  to  furnish  to  Prus- 
sia £666,000,  on  King  Frederick  William's  promise 
to  restore  the  status  quo  in  Hanover.  Russia  ob- 
tained a  subsidy  of  £1,333,000  and  the  continued 
maintenance  free  of  cost  of  her  fleet  locked  up  in 
English  harbors  since  the  convention  of  Cintra,  on 
the  Czar's  formal  permission  to  keep  160,000  men 
in  the  field  against  Napoleon.  Besides  this,'  the 
British  Government  guaranteed  fifty  per  cent  of  an 
issue  of  Prussian  war  bonds  amounting  to  £5,000,- 
000.  In  fine,  England,  Russia,  Prussia  and  Sweden 
bound  themselves  not  to  conclude  any  truce,  peace^ 
or  convention  whatsoever  otherwise  than  by  mutual 
consent.  Napoleon,  on  the  other  hand,  entered  into 
an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance  with  Denmark, 
thereby  securing  a  valuable  hold  on  the  mouth  of 
the  Elbe,  where  Davoust  held  Hamburg,  besides  the 
acquisition  of  20,000  troops  in  that  quarter.  At 
Vienna,  during  the  first  three  weeks  of  the  armis- 
tice, all  negotiations  hung  fire.  Prince  Metternich, 
rather  than  compromise  himself  with  either~party, " 
chose  the  role  of  mediator.  To  the  French  ambas- 
sador he  suggested  a  "suspension  of  last  year's 
treaty  of  alliance  between  France  and  Austria." 
As  Maret  insisted  that  this  was  equivalent  to  a  dis- 
solution of  the  alliance,  Metternich  himself  finally 


1813  June  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  481 

repaired  to  Dresden  to  have  a  personal  interview 
with  Napoleon.  The  two  men  met  on  the  night 
of  June  28.  Both  have  recorded  their  recollection 
of  the  interview.  "You  are  welcome,  Metternich," 
said  Napoleon,  "but  why  do  you  come  so  late? 
We  have  lost  nearly  a  month  in  coming  together,  meets  Met- 
and  your  mediation  has  assumed  almost  a  hostile 
aspect.  ...  Is  it  because  you  conceive  yourself 
in  a  position  to  dictate  terms,  that  you  pay  me  this 
visit?"  Metternich  soon  came  to  the  point,  de-  \) 
manding  not  only  the  return  of  Illyria,  but  the 
evacuation  of  Germany,  Italy,  Holland,  Poland  and 
Spain.  Napoleon  flew  into  a  rage.  "How  much 
has  England  given  you?"  he  demanded.  At  the 
same  time  the  Emperor  dropped  his  hat.  When 
Metternich  made  no  movement  to  raise  it,  Napo- 
leon turned  pale,  and,  after  striding  past  it  several 
times,  at  length  kicked  it  away. 

"You  are  not  a  soldier,  sir,"  he  exclaimed.  "You 
have  not,  like  me,  a  soldier's  soul.  You  have  not 
lived  in  camps.  You  have  not  learned  to  despise 
the  life  of  another  man,  and  your  own,  when  need 
be.     What  care  I  for  200,000  men?" 

Metternich  turned  on  him  with  unwonted  emo- 
tion. "Let  us  open  the  doors,  sire!"  he  exclaimed. 
"And  if  the  doors  are  not  sufficient,  open  the  win- 
dows!  that  the  whole  of  Europe  may  hear  you." 

When   he   at   last   left  the  Emperor's   room   he 

remarked  to  Marshal  Berthier,  "I  declare  to  youmch's com- 
ment 
solemnly,  that  your  master  is  out  of   his  mind." 

The  final   upshot  was   that   both   Metternich   and 

Napoleon   agreed   to    postpone    the   settlement  of 

XlXth  Century— Yol.  1—21 


482  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  July  7813 

terms  to   a  Peace  Congress  to   sit  at  Prague  dur- 
pSIe^      ing    the    first   week    of   July,    while    the    armistice 
"         was  to  be  prolonged  until  August  10. 

^  While  the  delegates  to  this  congress  were  con- 
vening, tidmgs  came  from  Spain  which  quite  offset 
the  moral  effect  of  Napoleon's  latest  victories.  It 
was  the  news  of  Wellington's  victory  of  Vittoria. 
Its  immediate  effect  was  to  give  England  sucFatT 
ascendency  in  the  impending  negotiations  that  Aus- 
tria ceased  to  waver.  From  that  moment  the  sit- 
tings of  the  Peace  Congress  served  no  other  purpose 
but  to  give  either  party  more  time  wherein  to  rush 
the  last  reinforcements  to  the  front. 
In  vittoria  The  battle  of  Vittoria  was  the  result  of  half  a 
year's  patient  waiting  and  planning  on  the  part 
of  Wellington.  After  the  campaign  of  Salamanca 
large  reinforcements  reached  Wellington  in  Portu- 
gal. He  made  a  hurried  visit  to  Cadiz,  and  the 
Cortes  invested  him  with  the  supreme  command 
of  the  nation's  forces  in  Spain.  He  set  to  work 
at  once  to  restore  the  disorganized  Spanish  army 
to  a  state  of  efficiency.  In  this  he  was  left  com- 
paratively unhampered  by  the  Spanish  Government 
— all  engrossed  as  it  was  at  that  time  by  the  dissen- 
sions that  followed  the  government's  suppression 
of  the  Inquisition.  By  the  beginning  of  April  the 
total  forces  arrayed  against  the  French  in  Spain 
aggregated  185,000  men,  75,000  of  whom  were  un- 
der Wellington's  immediate  direction.  The  French 
mustered  altogether  230,000  men,  of  whom  100,000 
mvenuon''  ^^J  ^^  Central  Spain.  It  was  at  this  time  that  Major 
Shrapnel's  new  invention  of  explosive  shells  filled 


1313  July  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  483 

with  small   bullets  came  into  use.     The  campaign  / 

began  on  April  11,  when  Suchet,  with  a  corps  of 
68,000  men,  was  foiled  in  an  attack  on  Sir  John 
Murray  and  Elio's  allied  forces  numbering  36,000 
men  at  Castilla.  Suchet  retired  in  good  order  with 
a  total  loss  of  2,000  men.  A  fortnight  later  a  con- 
centric movement  on  Madrid  was  begun  by  the 
army  of  reserves  in  Andalusia,  followed  by  the 
Duke  del  Pargne's  march  into  La  Mancha,  and 
Wellington's  southward  advance  from  Portugal. 
As  the  British  forces  crossed  the  frontier  stream,  v/eiiingtcn 
Wellington  rose  in  his  stirrups  and  waving  his  Spain 
hand  exclaimed:  "Farewell,  Portugal!"  Thanks 
to  the  demonstration  in  New  Castile,  the  French 
failed  to  oppose  Wellington  in  force,  and  he  was 
thus  enabled  to  drive  them  from  Valladolid,  and 
from  the  southern  banks  of  the  Douro  and  Carrier. 
On  June  14,  King  Joseph  abandoned  Burgos.  The 
ramparts  of  the  stronghold  had  to  be  blown  up  in 
such  a  hurry  that  300  Frenchmen  were  killed  in  the 
explosion.  From  Burgos  the  king  with  all  his  court 
and   army  retreated  to  Vittoria.     Their  flight  was  Joseph's 

•^  °  flight 

encumbered  by  an  endless  file  of  wagons  and  car- 
riages loaded  down  with  the  accumulated  spoils 
of  five  years.  Rather  than  lose  all  this  loot,  the 
French  army,  on  July  19,  faced  about  in  front  of 
Vittoria.  Wellington  came  up,  on  June  20,  with 
78,000  Englishmen,  Portuguese  and  Spanish,  sup- 
ported by  90  guns.  The  next  morning  Wellington 
advanced  all  along  the  line.  The  Spanish  division 
under  Murillo  led  the  attack,  but  after  Murillo  had 
been  wounded,  a  regiment  of  British  infantry  and 


484  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  July  1813 

a  battalion  of  Highlanders  had  to  go  to  their  sup- 
port. The  colonel  of  the  Highlanders  was  killed 
at  the  decisive  moment  when  the  French  lines  were 
swept  back. 

In  the  centre,  meanwhile,  Wellington  had  broken 
through  into  the  plain  of  Vittoria;  but  the  battle 
was  not  won  until  Graham,  after  a  long  fight  on 
the  left,  drove  the  French  from  their  strong  posi- 

v?ttoria  tion  on  the  Heights  of  Ariega.  When  the  French 
gave  way  they  left  behind  them  7,000  killed  and 
wounded,  and  151  guns,  451  caissons  of  ammuni- 
tion, and  a  wagon  train  containing  immense  spoils, 
among  them  Jourdan's  marshal's  baton,  Joseph's 
private  carriage,  the  military  chest  with  twenty-two 
million  francs  and  private  loot  beyond  estimation. 
More  than  that,  the  victory  of  Vittoria  meant  the 
immediate  expulsion  of  the  French  from  all  the 
northwestern  provinces  of  Spain.  It  was  the  most 
brilliant  achievement  of  the  Peninsular  war.  At 
its  close,  to  quote  Napier's  clarion  sentences:  "The 
English  general,  emerging  from  the  chaos  of  the 
Peninsular  struggle,  stood  on  the  summit  of  the 
Pyrenees,  a  recognized  conqueror.  From  these 
lofty  pinnacles  the  clangor  of  his  trumpets  pealed 
clear  and  loud,  and  the  splendor  of  his  genius  ap- 
peared as  a  flaming  beacon  to  the  warring  nations." 
The  victory  not  only  freed  Spain  from  its  invad- 
ers, and  prepared  the  way  for  an  early  invasion  of 

American  Prancc,  but  it  restored  the  spirit  of  England,  sorely 
tried  by  the  unsatisfactory  progress  of  the  war  with 
the  United  States. 

In  America,  the  campaign  on  land  this  year  had 


J813  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  485 

opened  with  a  British  reverse  at  Frenchtown,  offset 
by  the   successful   capture  of  General  Winchester  ^wn^*** 
and  his  force  of  800  Americans.     The  Indians  after- 
ward massacred  260  wounded  Americans.     A  week 
later,    fortune   again   favored   the   American   cause 
when  Captain   Forsyth,  with   200  voiunteers,   suc- 
ceeded in  surprising  the  Britisa.  at  Elizabeth  and^'i^abeth 
took  68  prisoners.     Then  came  the  famous  exploit 
when  the  American  sloop-of-war  "Hornet,"  com- 
manded by  Captain  Lawrence,  attacked  and   sunk^^j.^^^ 
the  "Peacock,"  a  British"   sloop-of-war  of  superior coe'k   ^®** 
armament.     This   put  an   end   to   the   oft-repeated 
boast  of  Englishmen  that  British  sloops  could  lay 
alongside    of    American    frigates    and    whip    them. 
Next     the     "Hazard,"     an     American     privateer 
schooner,  captured   the   British    frigate    "Albion" 
and  her  convoy,   the  cutter  "Caledonia."     In  de-^kes'li- 
fiance  of   the   blockade   of   Chesapeake   Bay   by  a 
British  squadron  under  Admiral  Warren,  the  Amer- 
ican privateer  schooner  "Adeline,"  on  March  10,  at- 
tacked and  sunk  a  British  schooner  in   that  same 
bay.     Shortly  afterward,  another  naval  action  was 
fought  out  on  the  waters  of  tho  Chesapeake  betweea 
four  American  vessels  and  seventeen  British  barges. 
An   American    ship    was    lost  in   the   fight.      The 
British  blockade  was  now  extended  all  along  the 
Atlantic  coast,  and  British  men-of-war  cruised  out- 
side of  Boston.     The  captain  of  one  of  them,  the 
frigate  "Shannon,"  challenged  Captain  Lawrence, 
of  "Peacock"  fame,  to  come  out  with  his  new  frig- shannon 

challenges 

ate,  the  "Chesapeake,"  and  fight  him.     Stung  by^Jiiesa- 
the  challenge,    Lawrence    prematurely  put  out  to 


486  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Summer  1813 

sea  and  made  for  the  "Shannon."  The  fight  was 
watched  by  multitudes  on  the  high  shores.  After 
a  repeated  exchange  of  broadsides,  the  "Ches- 
apeake" fouled  with  the  "Shannon,"  and  be- 
came unmanageable.  As  the  British  boarders  were 
swarming  over  the  side,  Lawrence  was  shot  through 
"^o^'*^  ^^Q  the  body.  He  fell  shouting:  "Don't  give  up  the 
^•"'P'"  ship!  Fight  her  till  she  sinks!"  The  carnage  on 
the  two  ships  was  dreadful.  In  thirteen  minutes 
252  men  were  killed.  The  first  officer  of  the 
"Shannon"  was  killed  by  his  own  men,  for  mis- 
takenly hoisting  up  the  Union  Jack  under  the  Stars 
and  Stripes.  Captain  Broke  of  the  "Shannon"  had 
a  narrow  escape.  As  he  stood  alone  for  a  mo- 
ment on  the  breach  of  the  forecastle,  three  Ameri- 
can seamen  leaped  upon  him.  He  was  felled  to  the 
ground  with  the  butt  of  a  musket  and  was  slashed 
in"  the  head  with  a  cutlass.  As'  he  lay  on  the  deck 
grappling  with  his  antagonist,  a  British  marine  ran 
up,  and,  taking  him  for  an  American,  raised  his 
bayonet  for  a  final  thrust.  "Pooh,  pooh,  you 
fool!"  said  Broke  as  he  lay  pinioned  down  by  his 
narrow es-  foe  ,  "dou't  you  kuow  your  captain?"  whereupon 
the  marine  changed  the  direction  of  his  thrust  and 
slew  the  captain's  assailant. 

On  the  same  day  with  this  encounter  in  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  a  British  squadron  chased  Decatur 
into  New  London,  with  the  "United  States,"  the 
"Hornet,"  and  the  prize  "Macedonia."  None  of 
these  ships  got  to  sea  again  while  the  war  lasted. 
Decatur  claimed  that  his  movements  were  signalled 
to  the  enemy  by  means  of  blue  lights.     Hence  the 


3813  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  487 

opprobrious   term   "Blue    Lights"    applied   to   the 
Federalists  of  New  England.     The  news  of  Brokers  ^[1,^^°"*°° 
victory  was  announced  in  the  House  of  Commons,    '^ 
on  July  7,  just  as  Lord  Cochrane  was  concluding 
a  fierce  denunciation  of  the  Admiralty  for  the  re- 
peated  naval  defeats   inflicted    by  the  Americans. 
By  way  of  defence,  the  Secretary  of  the  Admiralty 
read  aloud  the  report  of   Broke's  victory.     Amid  Bloke's  re- 
wild  cheers,    the    Crown,    then    and   there,  created  ^^"^ 
Broke  a  baronet  and  a  Knight  of  the  Bath. 

In  Europe,  the  end  of  Napoleon's  armistice 
had  been  postponed,  to  August  10.  Within  a  few 
days  of  that  date,  the  Congress  at  Prague  was  still 
sitting,  while  both  sides  were  preparing  for  the 
resumption  of  immediate  hostilities.  Prom  Italy, 
from  ITrance,  from  the  provinces  of  Germany,  from 
Denmark,  Sweden,  and  from  Russia,  reinforcements 
were  hurrying  to  the  theatre  of  war.  Even  from 
America,  still  warring  with  England,  the  allies  de- 
rived some  unexpected  help.  General  Moreau,  the  - 
victor  of  Hohenlinden,  who  had  lived  in  exilei  at 
New  York,  since  his  trial  and  condemnation  by 
Napoleon  in  1804,  was  induced  by  the  Czar  to  pit 
his    military    genius    against    that    of    his    former  Moreau's 

,  reappear- 

commander-in-chief.  The  old  general  consented  ance 
to  come  only  on  condition  that  France  should 
be  maintained  within  the  limits  she  had  acquired 
under  the  Republic,  and  that  the  French  people 
should  be  suffered  to  choose  their  own  govern- 
ment. As  soon  as  he  received  the  Czar's  reassur- 
ance on  this  score,  Moreau  embarked  from  New  York 
on  board  the  American  ship  "Hannibal,"  and,  elud- 


488  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Aug.  1813 

ing  British  cruisers,  landed  at  Gothenburg  late  in 
July.  In  the  company  of  Bernadotte  and  Jomini, 
the  great  theoretical  strategist,  he  journeyed  from 

Other   de-^^'^^^^^^  ^^  Prague.     They  arrived  at  the  Czar's 

lectioas     headquarters  in  time  for  Moreau  to  put  a  final  touch 

to  the  plan  of  campaign  which  was  adopted  by  the 

aJlies. 

y    On  August  7,  Metternich  transmitted  to  Napoleon 

/the  ultimatum  of  the  Austrian  Cabmet.     Metternich 

promised  to  procure  peace  if  France  would  restore 

uitLmaJifm  ^^^  provinccs  taken  from  Austria  in  1809,  the  North 
German  districts  and  free  cities  annexed  in  1810, 
and  the  Polish  territory  wrested  from  Prussia  and 
Russia  during  the  last  war.  Independence  was  to 
be  re-established  in  Italy,  in  tbe  papal  dominions, 
in  Holland  and  in  Spain.  Napoleon  was  ill  dis- 
posed to  grant  any  of  Metternich's  demands.  A 
new  French  army  from  Italy  was  marching  straight 
for  Austria.  The  appearance  of  these  troops  on 
the  Austrian  frontier,  according  to  his  calculations, 
would  put  the  most  effective  stop  to  the  warlike 
attitude  of  Austria.  It  was  a  game  of  intimidation, 
but,  unfortunately  for  Napoleon,  he  was  seriously 
misinformed  concerning   the  strength  of  Austria's 

Diaparity    armaments.     Maret's  spies  in  Vienna  had  led  him 

of  forces  ^ 

to  believe  that  the  whole  force  of  Austria  was  but 
100,000,  whereas,  in  truth,  more  than  200,000  men 
were  assembled  on  the  frontier. 

At  the  time  that  Napoleon  received  Metternich's 
ultimatum,  his  armies  in  Germany  had  grown  to  a 
total  strength  of  more  than  half  a  million  men.  Of 
these,  235,000  were  under  his  immediate  command 


Strength  of 


1813  Aug.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  489 

in  Saxony;  Oudinot  had  80,000  at  Torgau  facing 
Bernadotte;  50,000  Frenchmen  and  Bavarians  lay 
in  upper  Bavaria  threatening  the  Austrian  frontier, 
while  some  150,000  men  held  the  northern  strong- 
holds from  Hamburg  to  Dantzig  and  along  the  Elbe 
and  Oder.  The  available  forces  of  the  allies  aggre- 
gated 400,000  men,  of  whom  220,000  threatened  the 
French  flank  and  rear  from  Bohemia.  Two  more 
armies  of  80,000  and  90,000  respectively  pressed  on 
Napoleon  from  the  east  and  from  the  north.  Behind  ^iHes 
them  200,000  reserves  were  on  the  march. 

On  August  10,  twelve  hours  after  the  receipt  of 
Austria's  ultimatum,   Napoleon  returned  a  partial 
answer.     He  conceded  some  of  the  demands,   but    / 
refused    peremptorily   to   restore   either   Trieste   or 
the  middle  German  provinces.     His  terms  were  un-  .  '■ 
acceptable — moreover,   they  did  not   reach   Prague    / 
until  August  11.     By  that  time  the  armistice  had 
terminated  and  the  Peace  Congress  was  dissolved. 
Before   dawn    of    the    next    morniag,    the   soldiers 
bivouacked   in   Silesia   beheld   the   blaze   of   innu- 
merable  beacon-fires  along  the  ridees  of  the  Rie- „  ,  , 

"  '-'  End  of 

sengebirge.     It  was  the  signal  that  hostilities  would  ^''"^^ 
resume    and    that    Austria    had    declared    war    on 
France. 

Napoleon's  plan  was  to  descend  first  on  the 
enemy's  rear,  from  the  heights  of  the  Koenigstein, 
and  to  push  him  toward  Dresden,  to  be  caught  be- 
tween his  armies  on  the  Elbe  under  St.  Cyr.  This 
done  he  meant  to  make  a  dash  for  Prague.     Berlin 

.  ,     ,      Napoleon'3 

was  to  be  taken  by  a  concentric  movement  oi  thepiaa 
strong  armies  of  Davoust,  Girard  and  Oudinot,  ad- 


490 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


Aug.  1813 


Moreau's 

touater 

plan 


Death  of 
Koerner 


Qross- 
beeren 


Battle 
of  the 
Katzbach 


vancing  from  Saxony,  Magdeburg  and  Hamburg. 
The  plan  of  the  allies  was  to  let  their  main  col- 
umn of  128,000  Austrians  and  70,000  Russians,  un- 
der Schwarzenberg,  push  through  the  Erzgebirge 
to  take  Napoleon  in  the  rear.  The  first  engage- 
ment of  importance  was  that  of  August  21,  between 
Wallmoden  and  Davoust  at  Wellahn.  It  was  in  the 
skirmishing  that  followed  this  fight  that  Theodore 
Koerner  lost  his  life.  He  was  struck  bj  a  stray 
bullet  at  Gadebusch.  One  hour  before,  he  had  com- 
posed his  famous  sword  song.  On  August  23,  Oudi- 
not,  near  Berlin,  came  in  contact  with  his  old  com- 
rade Bernadotte,  at  Blankenfeld.  A  general  en- 
gagement followed  at  Grossbeereu.  Without  the 
aid  of  the  Swedes,  whom  Bernadotte  held  back, 
the  Prussians  routed  the  French.  They  captured 
2,400  prisoners.  Girard's  division  of  8,000  advanc- 
ing from  Magdeburg  was  turned  back  after  a  sharp 
encounter  with  the  Prussian  Landwehr,  under 
Hirschfeld.  At  the  same  time,  Napoleon,  to  free 
himself  from  the  Prussians  in  Silesia,  made  a  dash 
into  Bohemia,  and  in  a  series  of  well-fought  engage 
ments  forced  Bliicher  back  to  the  Katzbach  River 
The  last  fight  cost  Bliicher  2,000  men.  With  Na 
poleon  thus  engaged,  Moreau  advised  Schwarzen 
berg  to  make  an  immediate  advance  on  Breslau 
Napoleon  had  to  abandon  all  further  pursuit  of 
the  Prussians.  Wheeling  his  columns  in  haste 
he  countermarched  for  Dresden,  while  Vandamme, 
with  his  40,000  men,  was  ordered  to  cut  oflE  the 
allies'  retreat  at  the  Koenigstein  and  Pirna.  Had 
Schwarzenberg  been  alive  to  the  situation  the  allies 


3813  Aug.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  491 

could  have  captured  Dresden  with  comparative  ease. 
As  it  was,  the  Austriaus  moved  with  accustomed 
slowness.  Dresden  was  not  attacked  until  the  25th 
of  August.  Then  the  city  was  heavily  bombarded 
and  St.  Cyr's  outposts  were  driven  into  the  sub- 
urbs. On  the  morrow  the  wellnigh  frantic  citizens  Dresden 
of  Dresden  were  overjoyed  to  see  Napoleon  ride 
into  the  city  from  the  other  side,  followed  by  his 
strong  army.  He  was  received  by  the  King  of  Sax- 
ony and  King  Murat,  who  had  come  from  Naples 
at  last  to  throw  in  his  lot  with  the  Emperor.  The 
combined  attack  of  the  allied  forces  on  that  day 
was  met  with  a  murderous  repulse.  During  the 
night,  Napoleon  made  all  his  dispositions  for  a 
masterstroke.  At  daybreak,  the  French  columns 
poured  out  of  the  city  and  attacked  in  turn.  The 
Austrian  left  wing  was  drawn  off  into  the  valley  of 
Plauen  by  Murat  and  Victor,  and  there  succumbed ""^p"'^®** 
to  their  combined  attack.  Yandamme,  advancing 
from  Koenigstein,  drove  the  Prince  of  Wiirtemberg 
into  Pirna,  Napoleon  himself,  with  the  bulk  of  his 
artillery,  pierced  the  centre  of  the  allies.  Emperor 
Alexander's  suite  at  Kacknitz  came  under  a  heavy 
fire.  General  Moreau  at  his  side  had  just  remarked, 
"It  is  rather  warm  here,"  when  a  cannon  shot  laid  Death  cf 

Moreau 

him  low.  "That  Bonaparte  is  always  lucky,"  re- 
marked the  dying  hero  as  they  dragged  him  from 
Tinder  his  horse.  His  legs  had  to  be  amputated 
where  he  lay,  and  he  died  soon  afterward.  It 
needed  no  Moreau  to  tell  that  the  battle  was  lost 
to  the  allies.  In  great  disorder  they  fell  back  into 
Bohemia.     The  French  took  thousands  of  prisoners.. 


492  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  Aug.  1813 

So  signal  a  victory  might  have  brought  more  de- 
cisive results  for  Napoleon,  had  Vandamme  suc- 
ceeded in  intercepting  the  retreat  of  the  allies.  He 
was  foiled  in  this  by  the  gallant  stand  of  the  Rus- 
sian rearguard  under  Ostermann.  Though  over- 
matched as  four  to  one,  the  Russians  held  back 
^and*at  ^^^  French  for  a  whole  day  at  Kulm,  until  the  first 
^"'"^  corps  of  their  army  came  up.  Ostermann's  8,000 
men  had  been  reduced  to  2,000,  and  he  himself  lost 
an  arm  during  the  light;  but  those  who  survived 
had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  Vandamme's  division 
overwhelmed  in  turn  by  superior  numbers.  The 
French  tried  to  escape  through  the  mountains,  but 
there  fell  into  the  hands  of  Kleist's  Prussian  corps 
retreating  from  Dresden.  Vandamme  and  the  bulk 
of  his  corps  were  taken  prisoners.  The  victory  of 
Dresden  was  further  offset  by  a  severe  reverse  of 
the  same  day  inflicted  on  the  French  by  Bliicher 
in  Silesia.  After  having  drawn  Macdonald's  wide 
extended  lines  from  the  banks  of  the  Bober  across 
the  Katzbach  and  foaming  Neisse,  Bliicher  sud- 
denly turned  about  and  shattered  the  French  centre 
by  a  fierce  attack  with  his  whole  column.  Under 
a  heavy  thunder-shower  the  French  were  driven 
into  the  swollen  rivers.  When  the  wet  firelocks  of 
the  Prussians  put  an  end  to  their  volleys,  Bliicher 
drew  his  sword  shouting  "Vorwarts!"    and   led  a 

Battle  of  ° 

wahistadt  bayonet  charge  against  the  French  over  the  ancient 
battlefield  of  Wahistadt.  The  French  were  utterly 
routed.  A  part  of  their  retreating  troops  under 
General  Puthod  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Russians. 
In  all,  the  allies  captured  18,000  prisoners  and  103 


1813  Sept.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  493 

guns.  Bliicher  lost  but  one  thousand  of  his  men. 
For  this  action  he  was  created  Prince  of  Wahlstadt, 
but  his  soldiers  surnamed  him  Marshal  Vorwarts. 
Macdonald  returned  to  Dresden  almost  unattended  ™    .    , 

Blucner  3 

and     broke    the    melancholy    news    to    Napoleon:''®"^''** 
"  Voire  armee   du   Bobre   n'existe  plus /^^ 

Oudinot  reported  a  similar  distressing  disaster. 
Napoleon  despatched  Ney  to  take  his  place,  butNey 
even  that  undaunted  leader  sent  back  discouraging  Oudinot 
reports.  "It  is  my  duty,"  he  wrote  from  Wurtzen, 
"to  declare  to  your  Majesty  that  with  the  present 
organization  of  the  Fourth,  Seventh  and  Twelfth 
army  corps  no  good  results  can  be  expected  from 
them.  Both  generals  and  officers  are  demoral- 
ized. .  .  .  Your  Majesty  should  be  informed  that 
the  foreign  troops  of  all  nationalities  show  a  very 
bad  disposition,  and  that  it  is  doubtful  whether  the 
cavalry  which  I  have  with  me  be  not  more  hurt- 
ful than  useful."  On  September  6,  Ney  risked  a 
general  engagement  at  Dennewitz  and  met  with  a^^i°^^'* 
crushing  reverse.  The  Prussians  under  Von  Bue- 
low  and  Tauenzien,  supported  by  two  inactive 
corps  of  Eussians  and  Swedes,  utterly  routed  the 
French  army  and  nearly  annihilated  their  rearguard 
of  Wiirtembergers.  The  Bavarian  corps  under  Rag- 
lowich,  which  had  remained  almost  inactive  during 
the  battle,  retired  in  another  direction,  firing  on 
their  French  allies  whenever  the  fugitives  came 
too  near  them.  Ney  lost  8,000  men,  eighty  guns 
and  three  eagles.  The  loss  of  the  allies  was  but 
6,000,  of  whom  nearly  6,000  were  Prussians.  Ney's 
report  of  the  disaster  of  Dennewitz  was  sufficient- 


494 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


Sept.  1813 


Ney's 
report 


Blucber's 
strategy 


French 
situation 


ly  ominous:  "I  have  been  totally  defeated,  and  do 
not  know  yet  whether  my  army  has  reassembled. 
The  spirit  of  the  generals  and  officers  is  shattered. 
To  command  in  such  condition  is  but  half  to  com- 
mand. I  had  rather  be  a  common  grenadier."  Na- 
poleon tried  to  offset  these  reverses  by  another  dash 
on  the  Prussians  in  Silesia,  but  Bliicher,  after  a 
series  of  exhausting  marches  and  countermarches 
amid  torrents  of  rain,  skilfully  evaded  him. 
"These  creatures  have  learned  something!"  ex- 
claimed Napoleon  bitterly  as  he  returned  to  Dres- 
den to  ward  off  another  attack  from  that  city. 
While  the  time  consumed  in  these  constant  fights 
meant  so  many  more  marches  for  Bennigsen's  re- 
serves hurrying  down  from  Russia,  it  meant  noth- 
ing for  Napoleon  but  an  increasing  consumption  of 
men  and  stores.  For  the  French  army  the  situation 
became  serious.  Already  orders  had  been  sent  to 
strengthen  the  Rhine  fortresses  along  the  line  of  re- 
treat. The  French  Minister  of  War  in  transmitting 
Napoleon's  orders  wrote: 

"Our  army  is  still  large  and  in  good  condition, 
but  the  generals  and  officers,  wearied  with  the  war, 
have  no  longer  that  action  which  formerly  led  them 
to  great  exploits;  the  theatre  is  too  extended.  The 
Emperor  is  victorious  whenever  he  can  be  on  the 
spot;  but  he  cannot  be  everywhere,  and  the  generals 
who  command  in  his  absence  seldom  answer  to  his 
expectations.  You  are  aware  of  what  happened  to 
General  Vandamme;  the  Duke  of  Tarento  has  met 
with  reverses  in  Silesia,  and  the  Prince  of  the  Mos- 
kova  has  just  been  beaten  in  marching  upon  Berlin. 
I  present  you  with  this  picture  in  order  that  you 
may  know  all,  and  take  steps  accordingly." 


1813  Oct.  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  495 

While  Napoleon  lay  at  Dresden  a  series  of  minor 
defeats  were  inflicted  on  his  outlying  marshals.  As 
Davoust  was  retiring  to  Hamburg  in  the  middle  of 
September,  his  rearguard  was  cut  off  by  Wallmoden  j^^^^^.  ^ 
on  the  Gorde.  During  the  last  days  of  September '^''^'^"^^ 
Platov's  Cossacks  captured  8,000  Frenchmen  at 
Zeitz,  and  then  descended  upon  Cassel  and  drove  King 

•'•  Jerome 

King  Jerome  from   his   dominions,     Thieleman,  a^®^^ 
Saxon  soldier  of  fortune  now  serving  on  the  Prus- 
sian side,  intercepted  the  French  convoys  at  Leip- 
zig,  capturing  1,200  prisoners  at  Weissenfels  and^®'^ 
2,000  more  at  Merseburg.     Lefebvre's  division  wasMerseburg 
badly  handled  at  Altenburg.     On  this  occasion  the 

•^  _  °  Altenburg 

French  auxiliaries  from  Baden  fired  on  their  al- 
lies and  helped  to  disperse  them.  Napoleon,  while 
manoeuvring  incessantly  around  Dresden,  felt  the 
ground  shaking  under  him.  On  October  7,  he  left 
Dresden,  to  demonstrate  against  BlUcher's  corps 
which  had  crossed  the  Elbe.      The  next  day  came 

^^  "^  Defection 

the  defection  of  the  Bavarians.  Wrede,  an  old-time  °^  Bavaria 
favorite  of  the  Emperor,  united  his  forces  to  the 
Austrians  and  laid  himself  across  the  line  of  Napo- 
leon's retreat.  The  King  of  Bavaria  justified  this 
change  of  front  in  an  official  note  recalling  the  fact 
that  he  had  been  compelled  to  sacrifice  30,000  of  his 
subjects  in  Eussia  "under  punishment  of  felony." 
Napoleon  spent  the  next  four  or  five  days  in  pain- 
ful irresolution.  Meanwhile,  the  allies  were  concen- 
trating on  Leipzig.  At  last  Napoleon  executed  a 
few  rapid  manoeuvres  to  overwhelm  Schwarzenberg's 
main  column  advancing  from  Bohemia,  but  it  was 
already   too  late.      On   October  14,   the   flower  of 


496 


A    HISTORY   OF    THE 


Oct.  1818 


Wachau 


Eattle  of 
Pleisse 


Uockern 


the  French  cavalry  under  Murat  was  engaged  by 
Bliicher's  and  Wittgenstein's  cavalry  at  Wachau. 
The  contest,  which  was  the  most  important  cav- 
alry engagement  of  the  campaign,  lasted  all  day 
and  resulted  in  a  drawn  fight.  The  next  day  a 
hurricane  swept  through  the  French  camp,  carrying 
away  roofs  and  tents  and  drenching  the  soldiers. 
At  midnight  two  rockets  were  fired  from  Schwarz- 
enberg's  headquarters,  on  the  south  of  Leipzig. 
They  were  immediately  answered  by  blue  and  red 
lights  from  Bliicher's  camp  on  the  north.  These 
signals  told  the  allies  that  all  was  in  readiness. 
On  the  morning  of  October  16,  while  Napoleon 
was  riding  forward  to  direct  the  attack  on  Schwarz- 
enberg,  the  French  were  unexpectedly  attacked  by 
the  Austrians  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Pleisse. 
The  attack  was  repulsed.  Latour-Maubourg  carried 
the  French  cavalry  so  far  into  the  enemy's  lines 
that  the  Russian  Czar  and  King  of  Prussia  had 
difficulty  in  escaping.  Only  the  fall  of  Latour- 
Maubourg' s  horse  saved  them  from  capture.  Na- 
poleon joyfully  exclaimed:  "Le  monde  tourne  pour 
nous!"  and  sent  off  couriers  to  Dresden  and  Paris 
announcing  his  victory.  Unfortunately  for  him, 
a  simultaneous  attack  from  Neerveldt's  division 
of  Austrians  across  the  Pleisse  kept  the  French 
engaged  until  Bliicher  with  the  Prussians  could 
throw  himself  upon  the  corps  of  Marmont  at 
Mockern,  and  compelled  him  to  retire  with  the  loss 
of  6,000  men  and  forty  guns.  One  single  Prussian 
brigade  in  this  fight  lost  all  but  one  of  its  officers. 
On  the  other  side  Napoleon  succeeded  in  repulsing 


Ml3  0ct.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  497 

the  troublesome  Austrians.  Neerveldt  himself  was 
taken  prisoner.  This  was  the  same  officer  who  had 
on  former  occasions  come  a  suppliant  to  solicit  the 
armistice  of  Loeben,  who  had  represented  the  Em- 
peror of  Austria  in  the  negotiations  of  Campo 
Formio,  and  who,  on  the  night  following  Auster- 
litz,  bore  the  proposals  for  the  famous  campfire  con- 
ference of  the  two  emperors.  Napoleon  summoned 
him  to  his  headquarters  and  engaged  him  in  conver- 
sation. ' '  This  struggle  is  growing  very  serious, ' '  he 
said.  "Should  we  not  put  a  stop  to  it?" — "That 
is  all  we  are  fighting  for,"  replied  Neerveldt. — "Let 
England  restore  me  my  colonies, ' '  rejoined  the  Em- 
peror, "and  I  will  give  her  back  Hanover."  Then 
he  spoke  of  the  possibility  of  an  armistice. — "The 
allies  want  no  armistice,"  said  Neerveldt;  "they 
reckon  to  go  to  the  Rhine  this  autumn." — "To  the 
Rhine!"  exclaimed  Napoleon.  "Before  they  can 
get  there,  I  must  lose  a  battle!"  Then  he  dis-N|«-^-,^ 
missed  Neerveldt  on  parole  to  repeat  what  he  had  ^^^^^^^ 
told  him.  "Au  revoir,  general,"  he  called  after 
him;  "when  you  speak  to  the  two  emperors  you 
may  recall  some  of  our  recollections  of  the  past." 
Neerveldt' s  report  only  strengthened  the  allies  in 
their  determination,  the  more  so  since  Bernadotte's 
reserves  and  Bennigsen's  reinforcements  were  ex- 
pected hourly.  Napoleon  was  weak  enough  to  hold 
his  army  in  leash  throughout  a  whole  day  awaiting 
the  results  of  Neerveldt' s  mission.  When  no  an- 
swer came  by  nightfall,  he  reluctantly  made  his 
dispositions  for  a  retreat  through  Leipzig.  After 
a  night  spent  in   going   over   the   whole   ground, 


498  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Oct  1813 

Napoleon  returned  to  his  bivouac  at  Probstheyda 

at  daybreak  just  in  time  to  see  three  columns  of 

the  enemy  advancing  on  his  reformed  lines  of  bat- 

^  ^         tie.      From  all  sides  the  French,   now  numbering 

Probs-  '  ° 

theyda  barely  190,000  men,  were  attacked  by  the  united 
forces  of  the  allies  mustering  300,000  men.  "Mes 
enfants,"  said  General  Maison,  "this  is  the  last 
battle  of  France,  and  we  must  all  be  dead  be- 
fore night."  Everywhere,  throughout  the  French 
ranks,  like  despondency  reigned.  When  Marshal 
Augereau  rode  up  to  the  Emperor's  headquarters, 
Napoleon  chid  him:  "You  are  long  in  coming,  my 
old  Augereau.  You  are  no  longer  the  Augereau  of 
Castiglione."  "I  shall  be  the  same  old  Augereau," 
replied  the  marshal,  "so  soon  as  you  can  give  me 
back  the  soldiers  of  Italy."  The  Emperor  himself 
was  deeply  discouraged.  While  the  first  cannon 
balls  were  striking  into  the  French  lines  he  still 
pondered  over  the  map  spread  out  at  his  feet. 
"What  an  intricate  problem  it  all  is,"  he  sighed. 
"No  one  but  myself  can  get  me  through  it.  But 
for  luck,  I,  too,  may  find  it  too  hard  a  task."  The 
arrival  of  Bennigsen's  reinforcements  really  turned 
the  day  against  him.  It  swelled  the  army  of  the 
allies  to  nearly  double  the  number  of  Napoleon's 
forces.  All  day  long  the  great  battle  of  the  na- 
tions raged.  As  the  German  historian,  Menzel, 
has  admirably  summarized  the  action: 

The  Austrians,  stationed  on  the  left  wing  of  the 
allied  army,  were  opposed  by  Oudinot,  Augereau, 
and  Poniatovsky;  the  Prussians,  stationed  on  the 
right  wing,    by  Marmont    and    Ney;   the  Russians 


Arrival  of 
teDOigseii 


1813  Oct.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  499 

and  Swedes  in  the  centre,  by  Murat  and  Eegnier. 
In  the  hottest  of  the  battle,  a  Saxon  cavalry  regi- 
ment, with  two  brigades  of  Saxon  infantry,  went 
over  to  Bliicher  with  bugles  blowing,  and  General 
Normann,  when  about  to  be  charged  at  Taucha  by 
the  Prussian  cavalry  under  Billow,  also  deserted  to 
him  with  two  Wiirtemberg  cavalry  regiments.  The 
whole  of  the  Saxon  infantry,  with  thirty-eight  guns, 
under  Eegnier,  shortly  afterward  went  over  to  the 

°  ''  Battle  of 

Swedes,   five   hundred   men   and   General   Zeschau^^'^^NaUoaa 
alone   remaining   true   to   Napoleon.      The  Saxons 
stationed  themselves  behind  the  lines  of  the  allies, 
but  their   guns   were    instantly   turned    upon    the 
French. 

In  the  evening  of  this  terrible  day,  the  French 
were  driven  back  close  upon  the  walls  of  Leipzig. 
Their  losses  were  40,000.  On  the  certainty  of  vic- 
tory the  three  monarchs,  who  had  watched  the  prog- 
ress of  the  battle,  so  it  is  reported,  knelt  on  the 
open  field  and  returned  thanks  to  God.  Napoleon, 
before  nightfall,  gave  orders  for  full  retreat.  But 
next  morning  he  returned  to  the  fight  with  a  part 
of  bis  array  to  save  the  retreat  of  the  rest.  At  the 
last  bridge  remaining  across  the  Elster,  the  scenes 
of  the  Beresina  were  re-enacted.  The  allies  over- 
whelmed the  fugitives  with  grape-shot.  Under 
cover  of  the  artillery,  Bliicher's  cavalry  charged 
into  the  French  masses  thronging  through  the 
streets  of  the  suburb  Halle.  A  French  corporal 
of  engineers,  under  orders  to  blow  up  the  bridge 
at  the  approach  of  the  enemy,  deemed  the  moment 
come  and  exploded  the  mine.    The  bridge  collapsed 


500  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Oct.  1818 

with  20,000  fugitives  still  on  the  wrong  side.  A  cry 
of  horror  arose,  W  bile  the  rearguard  rallied  for  a 
last  stand  against  the  enemy,  thousands  of  fugitives 
threw  themselves  into  the  water.  Marshal  Mac- 
donald  swam  his  horse  across  the  river.  Prince 
Poniatovsky,  who  tried  to  follow  him,  was  drowned 
tovsky       with   his  horse.      Generals  Reynier  and  Lauriston 

urowned 

and  a  score  of  other  generals,  as  well  as  the  King 
of  Saxony,  were  made  prisoners  with  nearly  23,000 
men.     Thus  ended  the  battle  of  Leipzig. 

Napoleon  with  barely  100,000  men  fell  back  pre- 
cipitately to  Erfurt  and  thence  to  Mentz.  While 
passing  through  Weimar,  he  sent  a  farewell  message 
to  Goethe.  On  the  march,  nearly  half  of  his  raw 
recruits  gave  out  under  the  strain.  At  Hanau,  Na- 
poleon found  his  retreat  barred  by  an  Austrian- 
Bavarian  corps  under  Wrede.  By  this  time  he 
could  count  on  barely  20,000  men  whereveith  to 
oppose  nearly  60,000  fresh  troops.  Napoleon  was 
undaunted.  As  he  surveyed  the  position  of  the  Ba- 
^o^m^'a^  varians  he  exclaimed  disdainfully:  **Poor  Wrede  I 
I  made  him  a  count,  but  I  could  not  make  him  a 
general."  Then  he  hurled  his  main  column  into 
the  Bavarian  flanks  like  a  thunderbolt  and  utterly 
dispersed  them.  Wrede,  while  trying  to  save  the 
day,  was  severely  wounded.  The  French  troops  re- 
gained Mentz,  after  one  more  reverse  at  Hochheim. 
The  allies  occupied  Frankfort.  As  Napoleon  crossed 
the  Bavarian  frontier,  he  said  significantly;  '*The 
King  of  Bavaria  and  I  will  meet  again.  He  was  a 
little  prince  whom  I  made  great.  Now  he  is  a  great 
prince  whom  I  shall  make  little." 


1818  Sept.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  601 

Germany  as  far  as  the  Rhine  was  now  completely 
freed  from  the  French.  St.  Cyr,  with  his  corps  of  cafjau^'* 
35,000  men  at  Dresden,  was  tricked  into  capitula- 
tion. In  November,  140,000  Frenchmen  and  790 
captured  guns  were  in  the  iiands  of  the  allies.  Next 
the  French  garrison  at  Dantzig  surrendered  with 
fourteen  generals,  among  them  Napoleon's  aide-de- 
camp,  Rupp.  The  allies,  too,  lost  heavily.  The^''^^'"^^'^ 
Austrian  casualties  alone  aggregated  80,000. 

The  French  were  no  sooner  driven  across  the 
Rhine  than  the  whole  of  the  Rhenish  Confedera- 
tion declared  for  the  German  cause.  After  King 
Jerome's  ignominious  flight  from  Westphalia,  the 
exiled  princes  of  Ilosse,  Brunswick  and  Oldenburg 
returned    to  their  domains.     Switzerland,    Holland  roiiapse of 

Napofeon'a 

and  Italy  revolted  against  l^rench  rule.  Even  empire 
Murat  went  over  to  the  enemy.  Before  the  end 
of  the  year  Trieste  and  the  greater  part  of  Dalmatia 
surrendered  to  the  Austrian  troops.  Almost  simul- 
taneously with  the  events  around  Leipzig,  Welling- 
ton drove  Soult's  forces  across  the  Pyrenees  and 
invaded  France.  The  French  garrison  of  Pampe- 
luna,  cut  off  in  the  rear,  had  to  surrender. 

President  Madison,  in  America,  during  this  inter- 
val, had  become  profoundly  discouraged  by  the 
disheartening  progress  of  the  war  with  England.  X^enca"' 
The  unsuccessful  siege  of  Fort  Meigs  had  cost  the 
Americans  nearly  one  thousand  men.  At  last,  in 
the  autumn,  two  events  occurred  which  served  to 
hearten  the  Amerit-an  President  and  his  Cabinet.  . 
On  September  5,  the  American  ship  "Enterprise," 
16  guns,    Captain    Barro,   sighted  the  Briush    brig 


502  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  Sept.  1818 

"Boxer,"  14  guns,  off  the  coast  of  Maine.     The  two 

vessels  promptly  came  into  action  and  exchanged 

the  "En-     broadsidcs.     Early  in  the  fight  both  captains  fell. 

terpris&-' 

The  "Boxer"  finally  struck  her  colors  and  was 
towed  into  Portland  as  a  prize. 

On  September  9,  Barclay  with  a  British  squadron 
started  on  his  cruise  for  the  American  fleet  under 
Commodore  Perry,  then  at  anchor  off  Put-in- bay. 
The  British  fleet  consisted  of  six  vessels:  the  "De- 
troit, ' '  of  490  tons,  carrying  19  guns  and  Comman- 
der Barclay;  the  "Queen  Charlotte,"  17  guns;  the 
"Lady  Pre vost,"  13  guns;  the  "Hunter, "  10  guns; 
the  "Little  Belt,"  3  guns,  and  a  small  sloop  with 
one  gun,  numbering  in  all  63  guns  and  450  men. 
Perry's  squadron  consisted  of  nine  vessels:  the 
"Lawrence,"  Perry's  own  brig,  carrying  20  guns; 
the  "Niagara"  of  the  same  armament;  the  "Cale- 
donia" of  3  guns,  and  the  schooners  "Ariel," 
"Scorpion,"  "Somers, "  "Proserpina"  and  "Ti- 
gress," carrying  ten  guns  altogether,  and  a  one 
gun  sloop,  in  all  bearing  54  guns  and  532  men. 
The  American  broadsides  threw  at  close  range  950 
pounds,  against  450  of  the  British.  At  long  range 
the  British  ships  could  throw  195,  against  288  of 
the  Americans.  In  tonnage,  the  Americans  over- 
matched the  English  as  eight  to  seven. 

At  daylight  on  September  10,  Perry  bore  down, 
striking  the  British  fleet  obliquely  near  its  head. 
He  was  anxious  to  fight  at  close  range.  The  battle 
Lake  Erie  began  in  earnest  about  noon.  The  British  fire  was 
very  destructive.  Perry's  flagship,  the  "Lawrence," 
within  canister  shot,   sustained  the  action  for  two 


1813  Autumn  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  6U3 

hoars,  until  every  gun  was  useless  and  the  greater 
part  of  the  crew  was  killed  or  wounded.  The  "Ni- 
agara" then  came  into  action,  and  Perry  went  on 
board  of  her,  "At  quarter  to  three  in  the  after- 
noon," wrote  Perry,  "signal  was  made  for  close 
action.  The  'Niagara'  as  yet  but  little  injured,  I 
determined  to  pass  through  the  enemy's  line;  bore 
up  and  passed  ahead  of  their  two  ships  and  a  brig, 
giving  them  a  raking  fire  from  our  starboard  guns. 
Our  small  vessels,  under  command  of  Captain  El- 
liot, by  this  time  got  their  grape  and  canister  to 
bear,  and  the  two  British  ships,  two  brigs  and  a 
schooner,  surrendered."  More  than  any  other  bat- 
tle throughout  the  American  war,  the  victory  was 
won  by  the  courage  and  obstinacy  of  one  man. 
The  losses  of  the  British  amounted  to  nearly  one  in 
three.  On  September  12,  General  Harrison  received 
Perry's  famous  despatch:  "We  have  met  the  enemy  despatch 
and  they  are  ours.  Two  ships,  two  brigs,  one 
schooner  and  one  sloop." 

Harrison's  force  at  this  time  was  less  than  three 
thousand.  Richard  M.  Johnson,  who  gathered  a 
thousand  Kentuckians  and  Tennesseeans  armed 
with  guns  and  bowie-knives,  had  joined  Harrison 
during  the  summer.  While  his  mounted  men  went 
by  road,  Harrison's  main  force  embarked  in  boats 
and  were  conveyed,  4,500  in  number,  to  the  vicin- 
ity of  Fort  Maiden,  reaching  there  toward  the  end 
of  September.  The  British  withdrew  to  the  north 
bank  of  the  Thames.  To  the  left  of  the  road  was  a 
river,  to  the  right  a  forest.  Harrison  followed  and 
formed  in    line    of  battle   early   in  the  afternoon. 


604  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Winter  1818 

Johnson  led  half  of  his  men  up  against  the  six- 
Battieof    pomj(j  gjmg  ^f  ^^\^q  British,   while   the  other   half 
^      wheeled  to  the  left  across  a  swamp  to  attack  twice 
their  number  of  Indians.    The  battle  was  over  in  less 
than  half  an  hour.     Tecumseh  was  among  the  slain. 
Thus  ended  the  troublesome  war  with  the  Creeks. 
Its    cost  to   the   United    States    had    been    nearly 
20,000  men  and  $5,000,000  in  money.     Thereafter 
cums^h's^  the  British  ceased  to  be  formidable  in  the  North- 
west.    Tecumseh's  confederation   of   Indian   tribes 
was  broken  up. 

When  Napoleon  arrived  in  Paris,  Soult  was  pre- 
paring for  a  stand  on  the  banks  of  La  Nivelle.     On 
November  9,   he  was  overthrown  and  the  British 
The  war     colors  wcrc  planted  on  the  French  fortress.     Soult 

in  France  iii  -rw  o-iitwti 

was  forced  back  to  Bayonne.  Still,  Napoleon  de- 
clined to  accept  the  terms  of  peace  offered  to  him 
by  the  allies  at  Frankfort.  He  levied  new  war  con- 
tributions in  France.  Failing  to  obtain  immediate 
funds,  he  ordered  Soult  to  provision  his  troops  at 
the  expense  of  the  country.  As  a  result,  hundreds 
of  French  peasants  flocked  to  the  English  lines, 
where  they  received  hand  money  for  their  provis- 
ions. "The  English  general's  policy,  and  the  good 
discipline  he  maintains,"  wrote  Soult,  "does  us 
more  harm  than  ten  battles.  Every  peasant  longs 
tou'sauc-   to  be  under  his  protection."     During  the  second 

cesses 

week  of  December,  Wellington  made  a  determined 
assault  on  Bayonne,  and  drove  the  French  into  the 
inner  city.  Napoleon  realized  that  Spain  was  irre- 
trievably lost  to  France.  He  offered  to  release  the 
imprisoned  Prince  of  Asturias  and  to  restore  him  to 


J813Dec.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  505 

tis  throne.  When  his  brother  Joseph  talked  of 
indemnities,  Napoleon  became  impatient:  ''Joseph 
has  lost  Spain  and  will  certainly  never  recover  it. 
Let  him  consult  the  lowest  of  my  generals.     He  will 

Napoleon 

be  told  how  impossible  it  is  to  retain  a  single  village  i'^^Q"P 
beyond  the  Pyrenees.  The  first  condition  of  any 
peace  with  Europe  is  the  restoration  pure  and  sim- 
ple of  Spain  to  the  Bourbons — happy  if  at  that 
price  I  can  rid  myself  of  the  English  and  bring  back 
my  armies  of  Spain  to  the  Rhine!  As  for  compen- 
sations elsewhere,  where  are  they  to  be  found?" 
New  levies  of  troops  were  ordered  from  the  classes 
of  conscripts  liable  for  service  two  years  ahead. 
Frenchmen  were  struck  with  consternation.  Oa 
December  19,  the  Emperor  opened  the  Corps  Legis* 

latif: 

f 
"As  a  monarch  and  a  father,  1  feel  what  peace 
adds   to   the  security    of   thrones   and   of   families.        \ 
Negotiations    have    been    begun    with    the    allied       i 
powers.     1   have  adhered  to  the  preliminary  bases       1 
proposed  by  them,  and  was  therefore  in  hopes  that        \ 
before   the  opening  of  this    session  the  Congress        \ 
would  have  assembled  at  Mannheim;   but  new  de- peace j^ro- 
lays,  for  which  France  is  not  blamable,  have  de-^^^^^J 
f erred  that  event." 

The  Frankfort  proposals  of  peace  were  turned 
over  to  a  commission  of  the  Chambers.  Their  re- 
port, recommending  peace  on  almost  any  basis,  so 
enraged  Napoleon  that  he  determined  to  dissolve 
the  legislative  body.  When  the  deputies  appeared 
before  him  at  the  close  of  the  year,  he  assailed  theia 

with  these  words: 
XlXth  Century— Vol.  1—22 


506 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


Dec.  181S 


Napoleon 

rejects 

peace 


Corpe 

Lejfislatif 

di^lved 


"Deputies  of  the  Legislative  Body,  you  can  do 
much  good,  and  you  have  done  much  harm.  I  sum- 
moned you  to  assist  me,  and  you  have  come  to  say 
and  do  what  is  necessary  to  help  the  foreigner. 
Eleven-twelfths  of  you  are  good,  the  rest  are  fac- 
tious, and  you  have  been  their  dupes.  Your  com- 
mission has  been  inspired  by  the  spirit  of  the 
Girondins.  M.  Laine,  who  drew  up  your  report, 
is  a  worthless  man.  He  is  sold  to  England;  I  shall 
keep  my  eye  on  him.  Two  battles  lost  in  Cham- 
pagne would  have  done  less  harm  than  his  report. 
M.  Raynouard,  who  said  that  Marshal  Mass^na  pil- 
laged a  citizen's  country-house,  is  a  liar.  .  .  How 
can  you  blame  me  for  my  misfortunes?  You  say 
that  adversity  has  given  me  good  advice.  Is  it  by 
reproaches  that  you  propose  to  restore  the  glory  of 
the  throne?  I  am  one  of  those  men  who  can  face 
death,  but  not  disgrace.  Besides,  what  is  the 
throne  ?  Four  pieces  of  wood  covered  with  a 
piece  of  velvet:  everything  depends  upon  him 
whose  seat  it  is.  The  throne  is  in  the  desire  of 
the  nation,  whom  I  represent;  I  cannot  be  attacked 
without  attacking  it.  Four  times  have  I  been  called 
by  the  nation;  I  had  the  votes  of  5,000,000  of  citi- 
zens. I  have  a  title,  and  you  have  none.  You  are 
only  deputies  of  the  departments.  Is  this  a  time 
for  remonstrance  when  200,000  Cossacks  are  cross- 
ing our  frontiers  ?  .  .  .  I  am  beyond  reach  of  your 
declamations.  In  three  months  we  shall  have  peace, 
or  I  shall  be  dead.  Our  enemies  have  never  con- 
quered us,  nor  will  they  now.  They  will  be  driven 
away  more  speedily  than  they  came." 

Bent  6n  carrying  out  his  will  alone.  Napoleon 
signed  the  decree  for  the  dissolution  of  the  Corps 
Legislatif  on  the  last  day  of  the  year. 


^H 


•r  G 


1614  Jan.  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  507 


1814 

ON  THE  first  day  of  the  new  year,  Bliicher  j 
crossed  the  Rhine  at  Kaub.  The  invasion  f 
of  France  was  begun.  From  all  sides  vast 
armies  poured  into  France.  Wellington  advanced 
from  the  south;  the  Austrians,  under  Schwarzen- 
berg,  from  Switzerland,  and  Bernadotte's  corps  from 
the  Netherlands.  To  stem  this  tide,  Napoleon  made  of  France 
haste  to  send  his  latest  levies  to  the  Rhenish  fron- 
tiers. There  Macdonald,  Marmont  and  Victor,  with 
the  remnants  of  their  armies,  stood  ready  to  meet 
the  first  shock.  Another  French  army  was  concen- 
trated at  Lyons  to  block  the  allies'  advance  from 
Switzerland  and  Savoy.  The  outstanding  French 
troops  in  Spain  were  drawn  in  to  strengthen  Sou  It's 
opposition  to  Wellington.  On  January  25,  Napo- 
leon started  for  Chalons-sur-Marne.  Marie  Louise 
and  Joseph  Bonaparte  were  made  Regents  of  the^J*Jy,|, 
Empire,  with  a  Council  of  State,  including  Camba-  '*''«^^" 
c^r5s  and  Talleyrand.  When  Napoleon  kissed  Marie 
Louise  for  the  last  time  he  gave  Talleyrand  a  hard 
look,  and  said  significantly:  *'I  am  well  aware  that 
I  have  in  Paris  other  enemies  besides  those  1  am 
going  to  fight."  The  care  of  raising  an  army  of  re- 
serves at  Paris  was  intrusted  to  old  Marshal  Keller* 
mann.  A  picture  of  the  French  capital  at  that  time 
is  given  in  Guizot's  Memoirs: 


608  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  Jan.  1814 

*'I  have  still  before  my  eyes  the  appearance  of 

Paris — for  example,  the  Kue  de  Rivoli,  which  was 

then  only  partly  built.     No  workmen,    no  move* 

„   .  ment,  materials  in  heaps  unused,  deserted  scaffold- 

Paria  pre-  '  ^  ' 

Fhe^wirs't  i^gj  structurcs  abandoned  from  want  of  money, 
hands,  and  confidence;  new  ruins.  Everywhere  the 
population  seemed  uneasy  and  restlessly  idle,  like 
people  who  are  in  want  both  of  work  and  rest.  On 
the  highways,  and  in  the  towns  and  villages,  there 
was  the  same  appearance  of  inaction  and  agitation, 
the  same  visible  impoverishment  of  the  country, 
many  more  women  and  children  than  men;  young 
conscripts,  sadly  on  the  march  to  join  their  corps; 
sick  and  wounded  soldiers  pouring  back.  Never 
was  such  public  apathy  seen  in  the  midst  of  so  much 
national  anxiety,  or  malcontents  refraining  to  such 
an  extent  from  all  action,  or  agents  so  eager  to  dis- 
avow their  master  while  remaining  so  subservient  to 
his  purposes.  It  was  a  nation  of  harassed  onlookers, 
who  had  lost  all  habit  of  taking  any  share  themselves 
in  their  own  lot,  and  knew  not  what  determination 
they  were  to  desire  or  to  dread  for  the  terrible  drama 
in  which  their  liberty  and  national  existence  were  at 
stake." 

Those  that  left  Paris  with  Napoleon  fully  appre- 
hended what  was  in  store  for  them:  "We  are  about 
cioeeof     t^  undertake  a  task,  not  only  difficult,  but  very  use- 
^apo  eon  c  j^gg^ , ,   ^^.^  ^j^^  Dukc  of  Vinccuza.     "Do  what  we 

may,  the  Napoleonic  Era  is  drawing  to  a  close  and 
that  of  the  Bourbons  is  recommencing."  A  Minis- 
ter of  the  Regency  asked  the  departing  Emperor  for 
instructions  in  case  communications  should  come  to 


1814  Jan.  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  509 

be  intercepted  between  Paris,  blockaded  by  the 
enemy,  and  the  imperial  headquarters.  "My  dear 
fellow,"  replied  Napoleon,  "if  the  enemy  reach  the 
gates  of  Paris  there  is  no  more  empire." 

When  the  Emperor  reached  Chalons-sur-Marne, 
the  situation  was  the  reverse  of  encouraging.  The 
new  conscripts  received  him  with  black  looks,  and 
from  their  ranks  arose  cries  of  "Down  with  war- 
taxesl"  "Does  your  Majesty  bring  reinforce- 
ments?" was  the  pointed  question  of  the  marshals 
as  they  gathered  around  him.  "No,  there  were 
none  to  bring,"  replied  the  Emperor.  Of  imme- 
diately available  forces,  there  were  but  60,000  men 
wherewith  to  oppose  220,000  allies. 

Napoleon  sent  instant  orders  to  treat  for  terms  to 

^  Futil4 

Caulaincourt,  his  rejected  peace  commissioner,  then  pe^ce^j.^^ 
detained  at  the  advance  outposts  of    the   enemy's 
army.    "We  are  waiting  for  Lord  Castlereagh, "  was 
the  reply  transmitted  from  Metternich  to  Coulam- 
court.     Napoleon,  finding  himself  thus  put  off,  re- 
solved to  exact  a  better  hearing  at  the  point  of  the 
sword.     It  was  at  this  downward  turn  of  his  career       \ 
that  Napoleon's  military  genius  shone  forth  in  new       \ 
splendor.  ^ 

While  the  allied  armies  were  moving  cautiously 
forward  in  expectation  of  a  speedy  termination  of 
hostilities  by  the  new  peace  commissioners  conven- 
ing at  Chatillon,  Napoleon  suddenly  pounced  on 
Bliicher's  Prussian  corps  at  Brienne.  Though  over- 
matched   in    numbers.    Napoleon    manoeuvred   hisBiucher 

driven 

forces  so  skilfully  over  this  ground,  familiar  to  him  ^om 
from  the  days  of    his  early  military   schooling   at 


510  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Feb.  1814 

Brienne,  that  Bliicher's  army  was  separated  in  de- 
tachments and  routed  piecemeal.  Bliicher  barely 
escaped  capture  in  the  citadel  of  Brienne.  The 
Prussians  fell  back  until  they  came  in  touch  with 
the  South  German  corps  under  "Wrede  and  the 
Prince  of  Wurtemberg  advancing  from  Belfort. 
dlfeju^at  Thus  reinforced  they  advanced  again  to  La  Ro- 
Rotiudre  ^[^^^^6^  and  there  engaged  the  French  with  such 
superior  forces  that  the  Emperor  had  to  give  way 
with  heavy  losses.  Seventy-three  of  his  guns  were 
left  sticking  in  the  mud.  Counting  on  the  co-opera- 
tion of  Schwarzenberg's  main  column,  which  lay 
within  striking  distance,  Bliicher  pushed  forward 
with  utmost  haste  over  widely  distant  roads.  Na- 
poleon profited  by  the  scattered  marches  of  his  ene- 
mies to  deliver  one  telling  blow  after  another.  First 
he  caught  the  Prussians  far  in  advance  of  the  other 
brilliant  allics  and  threw  them  ojBE  their  route  in  utter  confu- 
sion. Then  he  fell  upon  the  Russians  under  Olsu- 
fiev  at  Champcaubert;  next  upon  those  under  Sacken 
at  Montmirail;  then  upon  the  second  Prussian  corps 
under  York  at  Chateau  Thierry,  and  finally  returned 
to  the  reunited  columns  of  Bliicher  at  Beaucbamp. 
All  were  overthrown  in  turn.  Having  achieved  so 
much  by  the  middle  of  February,  Napoleon  swung 
his  waning  forces  about  and  inflicted  a  telling  defeat 
on  Schwarzenberg's  Austrians;  then  he  repulsed  the 
Russians  under  Pahlen  at  Marmont,  the  Bavarians 
under  Wrede  at  Villeneuve-Lecomte  and  the  Wur- 
tembergers  after  a  hard-fought  two  days'  battle  at 
Montereaux.  Marshal  Augereau  in  the  north,  rid 
for  the  moment  of  his  most  pressing  enemies,  im- 


raJly 


1814  Spring  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  511 

proved  the    lull    by  driving  the   Austrians    under 
Bubna  into  Switzerland. 

At  a  council  of  war  held  at  Troyes,  Schwarzen- 
berg  advised  a  general  retreat.  Bliicher  alone  would  ^^^^^^^ 
have  none  of  it.  In  defiance  of  the  commander-in-  sie^fast 
chief's  directions  he  pushed  his  column,  and  uniting 
with  Baelow  and  Winzingerode  on  the  Marne,  at- 
tacked Napoleon's  dwindling  army  at  Laon.  The 
first  day's  engagement  resulted  in  a  drawn  battle. 
The  French  rested  on  the  battlefield.  After  dark 
York's  division  turned  one  of  the  enemy's  flanks 

and  burst  in  upon  the  French  with  a  wild  night  at- 

Night  at- 
tack.    Everything  was  turned  topsy-turvy,  and  the  tack  at 

French  bivouac  was  stampeded.  An  artillery  park 
of  forty-six  guns  was  captured.  At  the  news  of  this 
brilliant  success  Schwarzenberg  stopped  his  retro- 
grade manoeuvres  and  advanced  once  more  far  into 
the  interior.  Napoleon  gathered  his  demoralized 
forces  for  a  supreme  effort,  and  on  March  20,  made 
a  bold  dash  for  the  enemy's  position  at  Arcis-sur- 
Aube.  Schwarzenberg,  stronger  as  he  was  by  his 
overpowering  numbers  and  superior  artillery,  stood 
his  ground  with  unwonted  resolution.  Five  times 
in  succession  the  Prince   of   Wartemberg   led   his 

Battle  of 

troops  to  the  assault  against  Napoleon's  centre,  butArcis 
at  nightfall  neither  side  had  gained  much   advan- 
tage. 

While  things  stood  thus  in  the  field,  the  peace  /   , 
plenipotentiaries    were    deliberating    at    Chatillon.  I        \ 
Metternich  and  Castlereagh,  as  the  representatives" 
of  Austria  and  England,  which  held  the  balance  of 
power,  were  the  guiding  spirits.     Stein  stood  for  a 


512  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Spring  1814 


rv'n 


united  Germany.  Wilhelm  von  Humboldt  spoke 
Eotiaxions  ^01"  ■t'russia.  ilasumovski  and  the  vengeful  Corsi- 
^'^^  can  Pozzo  di  Borgo  represented  Kussia,  though  the 
Czar  was  always  near  enough  to  make  his  presence 
felt  at  crucial  moments.  It  was  at  this  time  that 
South ey  wrote  his  famous  ode: 

Southey's  Who  couqsgIs  peace  at  this  momentous  hour, 


ode 


When  Grod  hath  given  deliverance  to  the  oppress'd, 

And  to  the  injured  power? 

Who  counsels  peace,  when  Vengeance  like  a  flood 

Rolls  on,  no  longer  now  to  be  repress'd ; 

When  innocent  blood 

From  the  four  corners  of  the  world  cries  out 

For  justice  upon  one  accursed  head; 

When  Freedom  hath  her  holy  banner  spread 

Over  all  nations,  now  in  one  just  cause 

United;  when  with  one  sublime  accord 

Europe  throws  ofiE  the  yoke  abhorr'd. 

And  Loyalty  and  Faith  and  Ancient  Laws 

Follow  the  avenging  sword  1 

Woe,  woe  to  England  I  woe  and  endless  shame. 

If  this  heroic  land, 

False  to  her  feelings  and  unspotted  fame. 

Hold  out  the  olive  to  the  Tyrant's  hand  I 

Woe  to  the  world,  if  Bonaparte's  throne 

•    Be  suffer'd  still  to  stand! 

For  by  what  names  shall  Right  and  Wrong  be  known,  . 

What  new  and  courtly  phrases  must  we  feign 

For  Falsehood,  Murder,  and  all  monstrous  crimes, 

If  that  perfidious  Corsican  maintain 

Still  his  detested  reign. 

And  France,  who  yearns  even  now  to  break  her  chain. 

Beneath  his  iron  rule  be  left  to  groan? 

No!  by  the  innumerable  dead 

Whose  blood  hath  for  his  lust  of  power  been  shed, 

Death  only  can  for  his  foul  deeds  atone; 

That  peace  which  Death  and  Judgment  can  bestow. 

That  peace  be  Bonaparte's  .  .  that  alone  I 

For  sooner  shall  the  Ethiop  change  his  skin, 
Or  from  the  Leopard  shall  her  spots  depart. 


iai4  Spring  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  51S 

Than  this  man  change  his  old  flagitious  heart. 

Have  ye  not  seen  him  in  the  balance  weighed. 

And  there  found  wanting? — On  the  stage  of  blood 

Foremost  the  resolute  adventurer  stood; 

And  when,  by  many  a  battle  won, 

He  placed  upon  his  brow  the  crown, 

Curbing  delirious  Fiance  beneath  his  sway. 

Then,  hke  Octavius  in  old  time, 

Fair  name  might  he  have  handed  down, 

Effacing  many  a  stain  of  former  crime. 

Fool!  should  he  cast  away  that  bright  renown! 

Fool!  the  redemption  proffer'd  should  he  lose! 

"When  Heaven  such  grace  vouchsafed  him  that  the  way 

To  Gk)od  and  Evil  lay 

Before  him,  which  to  choose. 

But  Evil  was  his  Good, 

For  all  too  long  in  blood  had  he  been  nuret, 

And  ne'er  was  earth  with  verier  tyrant  curst. 

Bold  man  and  bad, 

Remorseless,  godless,  full  of  fraud  and  lies. 

And  black  with  murders  and  with  perjuries, 

Himself  in  Hell's  whole  panoply  he  clad; 
No  law  but  his  own  headstrong  will  he  knew, 

No  counsellor  but  his  own  wicked  heart. 

From  evil  thus  portentous  strength  he  drew. 

And  trampled  under  foot  all  human  lies. 

All  holy  laws,  all  natural  charities. 

O  France  I  beneath  this  fierce  Barbarian's  sway 

Disgraced  thou  art  to  all  succeeding  times; 

Bapine,  and  blood,  and  fire  have  mark'd  thy  way. 

All  loathsome,  all  unutterable  crimes. 

A  curse  is  on  thee,  France  I  from  far  and  wide 

It  hath  gone  up  to  Heaven ;  all  lands  have  cried 

For  vengeance  upon  thy  detested  head; 

AU  nations  curse  thee,  France!  for  wheresoe'er 

In  peace  or  war  thy  banner  hath  been  spread. 

All  forms  of  human  woe  have  follow 'd  there: 

The  hving  and  the  dead 

Cry  out  alike  against  thee!     They  who  bear, 

Crouching  beneath  its  weight,  thine  iron  yoke. 

Join  in  the  bitterness  of  secret  prayer 

The  voice  of  that  innumerable  throng 

Whose  slaughtered  spirits  day  and  night  invoke 


514  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Spring  18U 

The  everlasting  Judge  of  right  and  wrong, 
How  long,  0  Lord  I  Holy  and  Just,  how  long! 


One  man  hath  been  for  ten  long  wretched  years 
The  cause  of  all  this  blood  and  all  these  tears ; 

One  man  in  this  most  awful  point  of  lime 

Draws  on  thy  danger,  as  he  caused  thy  crime. 

Wait  not  too  long  the  event. 

For  now  whole  Europe  comes  against  thee  bent; 

His  wiles  and  their  own  strength  the  nations  know; 

,Wise  from  past  wrongs,  on  future  peace  intent, 

The  People  and  the  Princes,  with  one  mind, 

From  all  parts  move  against  the  general  foe: 

One  act  of  justice,  one  atoning  blow. 

One  execrable  head  laid  low, 

Even  yet,  0  France!  averts  thy  punishment: 

Open  thine  eyes  I  too  long  hast  thou  been  blind; 

Take  vengeance  for  thyself,  and  for  mankind  I 

South ey  need  not  have  feared.  Napoleon's  rep- 
resentative, Caulain^ourt,  cut  ofiE  as  he  was  from 
quick  communication  with  his  master,  was  playing 
a  losing  game.  From  the  heat  of  battle,  the  Em^ 
peror  sent  him  contradictory  or  vague  instructions 
iMll!ruc°°^  like  this:  "Metternich's  proposals  are  absurd.  He 
*°°^  thinks  he  can  lead  Europe  by  the  nose.  Matters 
must  be  decided  immediately.  Accept  the  allies* 
terms  if  they  are  acceptable;  in  the  contrary  case, 
we  run  the  risk  of  battle  and  even  of  the  loss  of 
Paris  with  all  that  may  result  therefrom.  You 
ought  to  know  how  to  decide." 

Coulaincourt  was  scarcely  the  man  to  take  such 
responsibility.  The  allies'  terms  grew  more  and 
more  exacting  as  they  penetrated  further  into 
France.     Metternich  was  always  pressing  Coulain- 

Coulain- 

court        court  to  yield  now  or  lose  all.    Whenever  Napoleon 

Irreaoluto  "^  ' 

won  a  battle,   on  the    other    hand,   he   despatched 
couriers  to  Coulaincourt  urging  him  to  stand  firnr. 


I8l4  8prinar  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  615 

All  Caulaincourt's  remonstrances  broke  themselves 
against  the  fixed  resolve  of  Alexander  to  wipe  out 
the  humiliation  of  Moscow  by  a  triumphal  entry  into 
Paris.  In  this  resolution  the  Czar  was  strengthened 
by  the  impetuous  Bliicher  and  the  ardent  aspira-  j 
tions  of  the  Bourbon  princes,  now  drawn  to  France 
as  vultures  are  to  carrion.  In  their  behalf  Talley- 
rand at  Paris  was  turning  the  situation  to  account. 
He  advised  the  Empress  to  await  her  fate  in  Paris. 
Napoleon,  feeling  the  last  supports  of  the  throne 
fail  him,  sent  an  indignant  protest  to  his  brother 
Joseph: 

"I  write  to  you  frankly;  if  Talleyrand  gives  such^^^jj^  ^^^^j 
advice,  it  is  an  act  of  treason  implying  conspiracy.  |o*^*^j^« 
I  repeat  to  you,  have  no  trust  in  that  man!  for  six- 
teen years  I  have  had  experience  of  him,  and  have 
even  shown  favor  for  him;  but  he  is  certainly  the 
greatest  enemy  of  our  house  now  that  fortune  has 
for  some  time  abandoned  it.  I  see  that  fear  is 
turning  all  the  heads  in  Paris.  As  for  my  opinion, 
I  should  prefer  that  my  son's  throat  be  cut  rather 
than  ever  see  him  brought  up  at  Vienna  as  an  Aus- 
trian prince;  and  my  opinion  of  the  Empress  is  so 
good  that  I  believe  she  is  also  of  the  same  way  of 
thinking,  as  far  as  a  wife  and  mother  can  be  so.     I  Napoleon 

.      .        at  bay 

never  saw  Andromache  on  the  stage  without  pitying 
the  lot  of  Astyanax." 

The  dragging  negotiations  were  brought  to  a  de-     \ 
cided  turn  on  the  first  day  of  March  at  Chaumont, 
when  the  allies  accepted  Lord  Castlereagh's  draft      | 
of  a  treaty  for  mutual  defence  and  offence.     The 
four  great  powers,   England,   Austria,    Russia  and 
Prussia,  bound  themselves  together  for  a  period  of 


:> 


616  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  March  1814 

twenty  years  to  come.     England  undertook  to  fur- 
nish each  of  the  powers  with  a  subsidy  of  fifty  mil- 
lion francs,   throughout   the  duration   of  the  war. 
Sixth         ^ach  power  in  turn  promised  to  keep  a  contingent 
coalition    ^f  150,000  men  in  the  field.     The  propositions  to 
'  \  Napoleon  calling  for  a  reduction  of  his  empire  to  the 
I  original  limits  of  France  were  to  remain  open  for  a 
/  fortnight  longer.     If  he  refused  them  then,  all  nego- 
Ttiations  with  him  were  to  be  broken  off,  and  Napo- 
leon was  to  be  proclaimed   an  outlaw  of  Europe. 
Treaty  of  The  compact  was  sealed  at  a  game  of  whist  played 
by  Metternich,   Castlereagh,   Nesselrode   and   Har- 
denberg. 

The  Emperor  in  the  field  rejected  the  allies'  propo- 
sitions with  contumely.  To  Joseph  he  sent  the  min- 
utes of  the  plenipotentiaries,  characterizing  them  as 
"not  a  proposal  but  a  capitulation,  dishonorable  to 
France."  To  Cambac^r^s  he  wrote:  "You  will  see 
from  what  King  Joseph  communicates  to  you  how 
moderate  these  gentlemen  are — just  like  their  sol- 
diers, who  pillage,  slaughter  and  burn  everything 
in  France." 
Thc"Great     Then  camc   the  "Great  Week,"  as  it  has  been 

Week"  ' 

called,  when  Napoleon,  outlawed  and  everywhere 
outmatched  by  the  advancing  allies,  stood  at  bay 
against  the  world.  Scbwarzenberg  and  BlUcher  had 
effected  a  junction  of  their  armies.  Winzingerode 
was  detached  with  a  cavalry  division  of  ten  thou- 
sand picked  horse  to  hang  on  Napoleon's  flanks. 
Wellington  and  Hill,  who  had  driven  Soult  and 
Clausel  to  Toulouse  and  Bordeaux,  advanced  from 
the  south  and  fomented  royalist  risings  in  that  quar^ 


1814  March  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  617 

ter.  The  Due  d'Angoul^me  entered  Bordeaux  in 
triumph.  The  restoration  of  the  Bourbons  was  pro-  Bourbon 
claimed  by  the  mayor  of  the  town  amid  acclama- 
tions from  the  merchants  and  wine-growers  of  Bor- 
deaux, who  had  been  ruined  by  the  Continental 
blockade.  Having  lighted  such  firebrands  all  around 
Napoleon,  the  allies,  on  March  26,  began  their  joint 
advance  on  Paris. 

By  noon  on  the  first  day  they  overtook  the  de- 
tached columns  of  Marmont  and  Mortier,  covering 

'  °  Marshals 

the  Paris  road  at    Sommessons.      Both  commands  g^'j^gl^ 
were  completely  overwhelmed,  and  narrowly  escaped  ^^"^ 
capture.    General  Pacthod's  corps  of  National  Guards 
was  cut  to  pieces.     Napoleon,  about  the  same  time, 
was  fighting  between  Troyes  and  Arcis.     Winzin- 
gerode's  Cossacks  made  a  dash  for  Napoleon's  head- 
quarters.   The  Emperor's  horse  was  shot  under  him, 
and  his  Polish  lancers  had  to  rally  around  him  in  a 
square.     Ney  was  fighting  a  losing  fight  at  Grand- 
Farcy,  and  General   Friant  in  vain   sacrificed   the  purther 
Imperial  Guards.      Caulaincourt,   at  this  juncture,  defeats 
rejoined  the  Emperor,  fresh  from  his  futile  peace 
negotiations. 

•'You  did  well  to  return,**  said  Napoleon. 
"Death  is  preferable  to  what  they  offered.  We 
are  old  enough  soldiers  to  have  no  fear  of  death. 
But  you  shall  see  something  worth  while." 

"Your  Majesty  has  no  doubt  other  resources  that 
we  are  not  aware  of?"  asked  General  Sebastiani. 

Napoleon  motioned  toward  the  fight  raging  all 
around  them  and  said:  "Nothing  more  than  is  be- 
iore  your  eyes." 


518  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  March  314 

•'Then,  why  does  your  Majesty  not  think  of  a 
general  rising?" 

"Sach  ideas  are  purely  chimerical,  my  dear  Se- 
bastiani,"  replied  Napoleon.  "Fine  recollections  of 
Spain  and  the  French  Revolution,  A  general  rising, 
indeed,  in  a  country  where  the  Revolution  destroyed 
the  nobles  and  priests,  and  where  I  myself  have  de- 
stroyed the  Revolution!" 

The  Emperor  resolved  on  the  desperate  expedient 

of  taking  the  enemy  on  the  rear.    He  hoped  to  create 

so  powerful  a  diversion  as  to  draw  the  allies  o2  from 

Napoleon    Paris.    It  was  too  late.    By  the  time  he  realized  that 

cut  off  "^ 

the  forces  operating  around  him  were  only  detached 
cavalry  the  allies  were  already  two  marches  ahead  of 
him  on  their  way  to  Paris.  Bliicher's  vanguard 
skirmished  at  the  very  gates  of  the  capital.  Mar- 
mont  and  Mortier  were  gathering  tlie  National 
Guards  for  a  last  defence  of  Paris.  There  was  no 
artillery,  and  half  the  National  Guards  were  un- 
armed. Some  one  proposed  to  throw  up  barricades 
on  the  streets  or  to  throw  paving-stones  from  the 
windows.  "Why,  that  is  a  revolutionary  mode  of 
defence!"  objected  General  Savary.  "1  shall  most 
certainly  not  do  that.  What  would  the  Emperor 
say?"  A  detachment  of  2,000  mounted  National 
Flight  of  Guards  were  bidden  to  take  the  Empress  and  Prince 
Louise  Imperial  to  Rambouillet.  The  King  of  Rome  clung 
to  the  curtains  of  his  nursery,  and  Marie  Louise  wept 
as  she  entered  her  carriage. 

From  the  north,  south  and  east  the  allied  forces, 
numbering  170,000  men,  advanced  to  the  attack. 
They  were  led  by  Bliicher,  the  Prince  of  Wurtem- 


1814  March  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  519 

berg,  and  Barclay  de  Tolly.  Marmont  and  Mortier 
had  29,000  men,  not  quite  20,000  of  whom  were 
regular  troops.  Their  resistance  was  to  be  confined 
to  a  pitched  battle  before  the  octroi  wall.  The^,ygg^^_ 
heights  of  Montmartre  and  the  Barri^re  du  Trone,  ***''' ^^""^ 
with  the  plateau  of  Eomainville,  were  the  points  of 
attack.  On  the  morning  of  March  30,  the  fight  be- 
gan in  the  suburbs.  The  plateau  of  Romainville 
was  several  times  taken  and  retaken.  The  Prince 
of  Wurtemberg  carried  the  bridge  of  Charentoa 
against  the  National  Guards  and  the  pupils  of  the 
Belfort  School.  Bliicher's  Prussians  stormed  the 
Montmartre.  At  the  Barri^re  du  Trone  the  stu- 
dents of  the  Polytechnic  School  held  their  ground 
under  heavy  artillery  fire.  Marshal  Mortier  was 
fighting,  sword  in  hand,  at  Villette,  when  General 
Dejean,  who  had  got  through  the  enemy's  lines,  an- 
nounced to  him  the  Emperor's  approach.  At  the 
same  time  an  order  arrived  from  Joseph's  headquar- 
ters beyond  Montmartre:  "If  M.  le  Marechal  Due  de 
Ragusa  and  M.  le  Marechal  Due  de  Trevisa  cannot  Marshals 

"  ordered  to 

hold  their  ground,  they  are  hereby  authorized  to  ^"'■'^°^®'' 
enter  into  pourparlers  with  the  Prince  of  Schwarzen- 
berg  and  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  now  before  the 
walls."  Mortier  sent  a  flag  to  request  an  armistice. 
The  request  was  refused:  "It  depends  on  the  mar- 
shals," said  Schwarzenberg,  "to  put  a  stop  to  this 
butchery."  Late  in  the  afternoon  the  French  forces 
all  around  Paris  capitulated.  They  were  permitted 
to  withdraw  with  all  their  arms.  "And  what  of 
Paris?"  they  asked  of  Marshal  Marmont  as  he  came 
out  of  his  house  on  the  Rue  Paradis-Poissoni^re,  his 


520  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  March  1814 

face  blackened  with  gunpowder.  "Paris  is  none  of 
my  business.  1  am  only  a  corps  commander,  and 
I  have  saved  my  corps.  I  fall  back  on  Fontaine- 
bleau  and  join  the  Emperor."  Talleyrand  alone  re- 
mained to  safeguard  the  interests  of  Paris.  To  the 
French  aide-de-camp  who  sought  out  the  allied  mon- 
archs  at  Chateau  Bondy,  the  Czar  said  reassuringly: 
"It  is  not  my  intention  to  do  the  least  harm  to' the 
town  of  Paris.  It  is  not  upon  the  French  nation 
that  we  are  waging  war,  but  upon  Napoleon." 
"And  not  upon  himself,  but  upon  his  ambition," 
added  the  King  of  Prussia. 

evacuated  Early  on  Wednesday  morning,  March  81,  the  city 
was  evacuated  by  the  French  regular  soldiery.  It- 
was  entered  by  120,000  of  the  allied  troops.  The 
Prussian  soldiers  were  found  to  be  in  too  ragged  a 
condition  to  share  in  the  triumphal  march.  As  the 
Cossacks  rode  through  the  Faubourg  St.  Germain  a 
profusion  of  white  lilies  was  showered  upon  them. 
Napoleon,  in  the  meanwhile,  had  come  up  in  the 
rear  of  the  allies  as  far  as  Villeneuve-rArchevecque. 
When  he  learned  of  the  defeat  of  his  marshals  at 
F6re-Champenoise  his  troops  were  driven  onward  in 
forced  marches.  Failing  to  catch  up  with  his  ene- 
mies at  Villeneuve,  the  Emperor  could  no  longer 
suppress  his  impatience,  and  threw  himself  into  a 

Napoleon    carriage.     He  flew  toward  Paris.      At  Fromentain, 

arrives 

tooiat«  about  midnight,  the  postilion  drew  up  his  foaming 
horses  at  the  approach  of  a  troop  of  cavalry.  "Who 
goes  there?"  called  the  Emperor.  General  Bel  Hard 
rode  to  the  carriage  step.  He  has  left  this  record  of 
what  passed  between  them: 


2«14  April  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  621 

"Where  is  the  army ?"  asked  Napoleon. 
"Sire,  it  is  coming  behind." 
"And  the  enemy?" 
"At  the  gates  of  Paris." 
"And  who  holds  Paris?" 
"Nobody,  it  is  evacuated." 

"What!  evacuated?     And  my  son,  my  wife,  the 
government,  where  are  they  ?" 
"On  the  Loire,  Sire." 
"On  the  Loire!  who  sent  them  there?" 
"Sire,  it  was  said  to  be  by  your  orders." 
"My  orders!    Where  is  King  Joseph,  and  Clarke,  broken  to 

Napoleon 

and  Marmont,  and  Mortier?" 

"Sire,  we  did  not  see  King  Joseph  or  the  Duke  of 
Feltre;  the  marshals  did  all  that  it  was  possible  for 
men  to  do.  A  defence  was  made  in  every  part,  and 
the  National  Guards  fought  like  soldiers.  We  had 
nothing,  not  even  cannon!  Ah!  Sire,  had  you  but 
been  there!" 

"I  cannot  be  everywhere.  Joseph  lost  Spain,  and 
now  he  is  losing  me  France!  And  Clarke,  too;  if  I 
had  believed  that  poor  Rovigo,  who  always  kept  tell- 
ing me  that  he  was  a  coward  and  traitor!  But  we 
must  go  there  at  once!    My  carriage,  Oaulaincourt!" 

The  officers  threw  themselves  before  the  Emperor, 
to  stop  him  as  he  proceeded  to  walk  along  the  road. 

"It  is  impossible.  Sire!  It  is  too  late!  There  is  a 
capitulation!  The  infantry  is  behind  us,  and  will 
presently  reach  us." 

Some  of  the  detachments  were  already  coming  in 
sight.  Napoleon  let  himself  fall  by  the  roadside 
and  hid  his  face.     It  was  the  end  of  his  empire,  and 


522  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  AprU  18U 

he  felt  himself  once  more  reduced  to  the  rank  of  an 
adventurer. 

After  the  fall  of  Paris,  Napoleoa  remained  at  Foq- 
tainebleau  awaiting  developments.  The  soldiers 
and  officers  of  the  line  still  stood  ready  to  fight,  but 
the  marshals  and  general  officers  were  utterly  weary. 
They  insisted  on  giving  up  the  struggle.  Even  Ney 
turned  from  his  master.  Yielding  to  their  pressure, 
Napoleon  sent  Caulaincourt  to  Paris  with  a  formal 

Napoleon's 

abdication  abdication  in  favor  of  his  infant  son.     Caulaincourt 

exacted 

was  mformed  that  only  an  unconditional  abdication 
would  be  accepted.  The  Emperor  convened  his  mar- 
shals. They  were  obdurate.  Marshal  Marmont  drew 
ofiE  his  whole  Sixth  Army  Corps.  At  length,  on 
April  11,  Napoleon  signed  an  act  surrendering  the 
throne  of  France  for  himself  and  his  heirs.  He  was 
permitted  to  retain  the  empty  title  of  Emperor  with 
an  annuity  of  two  million  francs.  Furthermore,  he 
was  allowed  to  retain  a  bodyguard  of  one  thousand 
men  wherewith  to  retire  to  Elba,  one  of  the  Tuscan 
islands  in  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  Parma  and  Pla- 
centia  were  reserved  as  the  dowry  of  Marie  Louise 
jofepiik^e  ^°^  ^^^  King  of  Rome.  Ex-Empress  Josephine  re- 
tamed  an  annual  income  of  one  million  francs.  She 
only  enjoyed  it  for  a  few  weeks,  as  her  deuth  came 
within  a  month. 

Before  leaving  France,  Napoleon  tried  to  poison 
himself,  but  failed.  Next  day  he  took  leave  of  the 
remaining  members  of  his  Old  Guard,  kissing  their 
colonel  and  their  flag.  Then  he  departed,  under  a 
Russian  escort,  to  embark  for  Elba  on  the  British 
cruiser  "Undaunted."     On  the  way  he  had  to  dis- 


1814  May  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  523 

guise  himself  in  an  Austrian  uniform  to  escape  the 
insults  of  the  populace.     On   May  30,  he  stepped  ,^^1^^° 
ashore  at  Porto  Ferrajo  and  received  the  homage  of 
the  island  population  of  Elba. 

With  Napoleon  out  of  the  way  the  question  arose 
what  was  to  be  done  with  France  ?  The  Austrian 
Emperor  would  have  liked  a  Regency  under  Marie 
Louise.  Bernadotte  had  high  hopes  of  assuming 
charge.  Alexander  showed  himself  not  averse  to  a 
return  of  republican  rule.  The  proposed  restoration 
of  the  Bourbons  at  first  excited  scant  enthusiasm 
except  among  themselves.  At  the  advent  of  the 
Count  of  Artois,  some  weeks  previous,  neither  the 
Austrian  nor  the  Russian  commanding  generals 
would  give  him  official  recognition.  Wellington 
would  not  receive  the  Due  d'Angoul^me  at  his 
headquarters.  He  wrote  to  Lord  Bathurst:  "The 
only  opinion  I  can  form  is  this:  Twenty  years  have 
elapsed  since  the  princes  of  the  House  of  Bourbon 
left  France.  They  are  all  but  unknown  here.  In 
proposing  a  sovereign  in  place  of  Napoleon  it  mat- 
ters little  to  Frenchmen  whether  he  be  a  prince  of 
Bourbon  or  of  any  other  royal  family." 

Talleyrand  was  the  man  who  most  keenly  recog-  \ 
nized  the  expediency  of  recalling  a  prince  of  French  conflicting 

clajms  in 

blood  to  preside  over  the  destinies  of  France.     As  Frajnce 
he  put  it:  "The  Republic  is  an  impossibility;  the 
Regency  or  Bernadotte  means  nothing  but  perpet- 
ual  intrigues.      The   Bourbons    alone    represent  a 
principle." 

Talleyrand  was  pre-eminently  the  man  of  the  hour. 
As  the  only  remaining  officer  of  the  Regency,  and 


624  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  May  1814 

an  old  aristocrat  of  France  as  well,  he  had  the  imme- 
diate entree  to  the  sessions  of  the  allied  sovereigns 
■  and  their   councillors.      Trained  diplomat  that  he 
Taiie  andr^^'  ^®  ^ncw  how  to  cope  with  the  wiles  of  Metter- 
to  the  fore  Ljch  and  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  no  less  than  with  the  more 
/blunt  proposals  of  Castlereagh  and  Humboldt.     In 
/  his  capacity  as  Vice-President  of  the  French  Senate, 
Talleyrand  convened  some  thirty  remaining  mem- 
bers of  the  Corps  Legialatif.     With  their  help  he 
hastily  drafted  a  new   constitution,    which,   as   he 
phrased  it,  "restored  to  France  her  rightful  king — 
Prince  Louis  Stanislaus  Xavier  de  Bourbon."     On 
the  fourth  day  of  May  the  new  king  appeared  in 

Louis        Paris.    He  soon  showed  that  he  preferred  to  rest  his 
xvm 

claim  to  the  throne  on  the  "divine  right  of  kings," 

never  relinquished   by  him  or  his  house.     He  was 

recognized  by  the  royalists  as  Louis  XVIII.,  King 

of  France  and  Navarre.      Ten  days  later,  Prince 

Ferdinand  Louis  Ferdinand  of  Asturias  re-entered  Madrid  in 

VII.  re- 

B^^       triumph,   and  ascended  the   throne   of   Spain.     On 

May  20,  Prince  Victor  Emmanuel  of  Savoy  returned 

to  his  capital,  Turin.     Bernadotte  and  Murat,  the 

I  two  upstart  rulers  of  Sweden  and  Naples,  strove  to 

I   make  sur^  of  their  doubtful  thrones  by  absolute  ad- 

?*i?^  I    hesion  to  the  new  order  of  things.     Bernadotte  had 

dotte'a  D 

Sweden      improved  the  last  interval  by  wresting  Norway  from 
Denmark  with  the  help  of  a  Russian  army  corps. 

On  May  27,  the  draft  of  the  new  French  constitu- 
tion, known  as  the  Charta,  was  submitrted  to  Louis 
XVIII.  It  was  signed  by  him  on  compulsion  only 
of  the  Czar  of  Russia.  Three  days  later  the  Treaty 
of  Paris  was  signed  by  the  representatives  of  France 


1814  June  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  525 

and  of  all  the  great  powers,     France  got  off  very     / 
lightly,  thanks  to  the  generous  spirit  of  Alexander    / 
and  the  ascendency  over  him  gained  by  Talleyrand.    1, 
In  vain  did  old  Bliicher  vent  his  wrath  against  the 
"qaill  drivers,"  as  he  called  all  diplomats.     France 
was  allowed  to  retain  her  limits  of  1792,  and  got     \ 
some  slight  additions  of  territory  besides.     Nearly       ] 
all  the  French  colonies,  captured  by  Great  Britain,  changes 
were  restored  to  France.     Alsace-Lorraine,  wrested   ""^^^^ 
from  Germany  under  Louis  XIV.,  remained  a  prov- 
ince of  France.    No  money  indemnity  whatever  was 
exacted.     Even  the  French   prisoners  still  held   in 
Germany  had  to  be  sent  back  to  France  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  German  people.     Of   the   rich   spoils 
plundered  from  Italy,    Spain  and   Germany,   none 
were   returned  but   the  bronze  horses    taken   from        1 
the  Brandenburg  Gate  in  Berlin  and  some  priceless 
manuscripts  of  the   Library  of  Vienna.     By  other 
clauses  of  the  treaty  the  navigation  on  the  Ehine 
was  made  free.     Switzerland  was  declared  indepen- 
dent.   Holland  was  restored  to  the  Prince  of  Orange. 
Italy  and  Germany,  with  the  exception  of  the  Aus- 
trian provinces  in  both  countries,   were  rearranged 
as  clusters  of  independent  principalities. 

This  arrangement,  while  it  satisfied  the  princes 
who  profited  by  it,  or  such  simple  loyal  people  as 
the  Tyrolese,  deeply  outraged  the  growing  feeling 
for  national    unity,   which  had  arisen  in   Germany  National 

sentimente 

and  Italy.     Englishmen,  and  the  lovers  of  freedom  outraged 
throughout  the  world,  took  it  hard  to  see  the  old 
sea-going   republics  of  Venice   and  Genoa  brought 
absolutely  under  Hapsburg  rule.     Poland  and  Fin- 


626  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Summer  1814 

J  land  had  to  bend  their  necks  to  the  yoke  of  Russia. 
The  Norwegians,  much  against  their  will,  found 
themselves  cut  off  from  their  ancient  union  with 
Denmark  to  have  their  political  destinies  linked  to 
those  of  Sweden.  At  a  Diet  held  at  Eidsvold,  the 
Norwegian  people  repudiated  the  arrangement. 
They  drew  up  a  constitution  of  their  own  and 
elected  Prince  Christian  Frederick  of  Denmark 
King  of  Norway.  When  the  Diet  dissolved,  all 
Revolt  of  ^^^  members  formed  a  ring,  and  locking  hands, 
Norway  chanted  in  chorus:  "United  and  true  until  Mount 
Dover  falls."  England  promptly  put  the  coast  of 
Norway  under  blockade.  Russia  sent  troops  to  the 
border.  It  was  to  adjust  this  and  similar  difficulties 
that  the  representatives  of  the  great  powers  deter- 
mined to  convoke  within  the  same  year  a  great 
European  congress  at  Vienna.  To  this  congress 
the  settlement  of  all  vexed  questions  was  to  be 
committed. 

A  period  of  universal  rejoicing  followed.  After 
the  festivities  of  Paris,  Emperor  Alexander  and  the 
King  of  Prussia  visited  England.  Their  stay  there 
Rojoicing  ^^^  cloudcd  Only  by  the  gloom  at  court,  arising 
uj  England  £j,^^  the  Continued  insanity  of  the  blind  old  king 
and  from  the  open  rupture  between  the  Prince  of 
Wales  and  his  consort,  Caroline  of  Brunswick. 
General  Bliicher  was  the  lion  of  the  occasion. 
When  the  University  of  Oxford  conferred  a  doc- 
tor's degree  on  him,  the  old  warrior  remarked: 
*'Why  don't  you  make  General  Gneisenau  apothe- 
cary ?  It  was  he  who  prepared  my  pills."  About 
the  same  time  that  these  visitors  were  honored  in 


1814  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  527 

England,  Lord  Wellington  was  raised  to  a  duke- 
dom, and  had  his  annuity  increased  by  Parliament. 
Robert  Southey  was  made  Poet  Laureate — the  best  Poet  ^^' 

It'll  -r»  T  Laureate 

of  his  kind  since  the  laureateship  of  Ben  Jonson  in 
Elizabethan  times.  He  set  himself  to  work  at  once 
on  an  elaborate  prose  "History  of  the  Peninsular 
War."  Of  his  work  as  poet  laureate,  little  has  out- 
lived his  day  but  the  exquisite  lines  of  his  "Ode  on 
the  Death  of  the  Princess  Charlotte." 

The  withdrawal  of  the  British  arniy  from  Spain 
and  France,  and  the  collapse  of  the  Continental 
blockade,  left  England  free  to  put  more  vigor  into 
her  war  with  the  United  States.  The  blockade  of 
the  Atlantic  coast  was  made  more  stringent.  Ad- 
miral Cockburn,  by  his  relentless  raids  along  the 
shores  from  Loner  Island  to  Charleston,  inspired  ap-Tbewarin 

'-'  '11     America 

prehension  and  resentment  in  the  hearts  of  all  who 
dwelt  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard.  Fourteen  thousand 
veterans  who  had  fought  under  Wellington  were 
sent  into  Canada.  The  American  army,  under  Gen- 
eral Wilkinson,  lay  idle  until  February  1,  when 
2,000  troops  were  sent  to  Sackett's  Harbor  and  4,000 
to  Plattsburgh.  Wilkinson  was  retired  in  March  and 
Izard  took  his  place.  The  British  at  that  time  hacr 
control  of  Lake  Erie.      Early  in  May  a  British  force  British 

•J  •'  success  at 

destroyed  the  American   base  of  supplies  near  Os-  Oswego 
wego  in  northwestern  New  York. 

In  June,  General  Brown  with  a  force  of  nearly 
5,000  American  troops  marched  to  York  in  Canada. 
Having  seized  Fort  Erie,  he  hastened  on  to  Chip- 
pewa, where  he  found  a  strong  force  of  British. 
General    Eiall,    the    British    commander,   drew    up 


528  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  July  1814 

in  three  columns  on  Chippewa  Plain.  Scott  had 
ordered  a  general  parade,  "to  keep  the  men  in 
breath."  When  the  presence  of  the  enemy  was  re- 
ported to  him  he  advanced  his  men  across  a  bridge 
dividing  the  two  forces,  and  formed  them  in  col- 
umns on  the  other  side.  Thomson's  battery  of 
twelve-pounders  on  the  right  opened  fire.  The  ar- 
tillery fire  was  so  well  directed  that  the  British  col- 
umns were  unable  to  withstand  it.  During  the  ad- 
vance of  the  American  infantry  that  followed  the 
British  columns  broke  and  withdrew.  Eiall's  losses 
were  615,  while  those  of  the  Americans  were  300. 

On  July  24,  the  American  force  under  Brown  in 
Canada  encamped  on  the  field  of  Chippewa.  When 
the  American  forces  marched  to  Lundy's  Lane,  a 
mile  below  Niagara  Falls,  the  British  followed. 
The  two  armies  camped  but  three  miles  apart. 
Riall  was  joined  by  Drummond  with  815  men. 
Scott  advanced  in  the  hope  of  meeting  the  British, 
and  deployed  in  line  of  battle  as  soon  as  a  hostile 
Battle  of     force  was  sighted.     Lundy's  Lane,  at  right  angles 

Lundy's 

Lane  with  the  rivcr,  ran  close  behind  the  British  position. 
The  American  attack  was  delivered  on  the  British 
left.  An  American  battalion  under  Jessup  opened 
a  wedge  and  let  Scott's  main  column  through  into 
the  British  rear.  General  Riall  himself  was  taken 
captive.  From  seven  until  nine  in  the  evening 
Scott's  brigade  clung  to  the  British  left  and  centre, 
and  at  last  ceased  firing  when  the  ammunition  was 
exhausted.  The  order  was  then  given  to  Ripley's 
brigade  to  capture  the  British  guns.  Miller,  the 
officer  in  command  of  the  American  vanguard,  as 


1814  July  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  629 

the  order  was  repeated  to  fiim,  replied;  "I'll  try, 
sir."  The  21st  Eegiment  of  American  infantry 
silently  advanced  under  cover  of  the  darkness,  and 
with  a  sudden  rush  carried  tlie  guns  at  the  point  of 
the  bayonet.  Behind  the  guns  was  massed  a  force  of 
2,600  British  soldiers.  For  twenty  minutes  a  hand- 
to-hand  fight  was  carried  on,  but  at  last  the  British 
fell  back.  Their  guns  were  turned  on  them  from  the 
hilltops.  The  British  reformed  under  this  artillery 
fire  for  a  night  attack.  The  two  lines  were  engaged 
along  their  whole  length  at  close  quarters.  After 
half  an  hour  of  such  fighting  the  British  retreated 
again,  but  three  times  more  were  called  upon  to  re- 
capture their  guns.  The  battle  ceased  late  in  the 
night  from  sheer  exhaustion  on  both  sides.  The 
American  losses  were  853,  those  of  the  English  878. 
Both  Generals  Brown  and  Scott,  on  the  American 
side,  were  severely  wounded.  Next  day  the  Ameri- 
cans retired  to  Fort  Erie,  leaving  the  captured  bat- 
teries behind  them. 

On  August  IS,  Fort  Erie,  held  by  2,000  A meri- British 

°  '  '  -^       '  assault 

cans,  was  assaulted  by  a  force  of  3,400  British.  The^°''*^'^« 
attack  failed.  The  British  casualties  were  780,  as 
against  84  of  the  garrison.  A  month  later  General 
Porter  took  the  chief  blockhouse  by  assault,  and, 
spiking  the  guns,  blew  up  the  powder  magazine. 
The  first  American  battery  remained  untaken.  Gen- 
eral Drummond  thereupon  retired  with  the  whole  of 
the  British  forces.  Thus  ended  the  indecisive  opera- 
tions along  the  northern  border. 

In  August,  General  Ross  with  8,500  men,  fresh 

from  their  victories  against  the  French,  arrived  in 

XtXth  Century— Vol.  1—23 


630  A    HISTORi    OF    THE  Aug.  1814 

the  Chesapeake.  They  were  reinforced  by  1,000 
to|fon  marines  from  Cockburn's  squadron.  Their  obvious 
objective  point  was  the  city  of  Washington.  The 
attack  could  have  been  anticipated,  for  Gallatin, 
writing  from  England  two  months  before,  had  fore- 
warned President  Madison.  Nothing,  however,  was 
done.  Although  General  Winder,  in  command  of 
the  District,  could  marshal  5,000  men  against  the 
British  column  of  4,000,  no  determined  resistance 
was  offered.  Instead  of  sending  troops  to  protect 
the  flotilla  of  gunboats  lying  at  Marlboro,  Com- 
modore Barney  was  ordered  to  burn  his  ships 
and  retreat. 

After  great  confusion  within  the  city  of  Washing 
ton  a  force  of  2,500  men,  with  twelve  field-pieces 
was  brought  together  by  General  Winder.  He 
marched  beyond  the  confines- of  the  city.  On  in 
formation  that  the  British  were  comitfg  for  Bladens 
burg  the  American  column  headed  for  that  point 
President  Madison,  Colonel  Monroe,  and  Genera 
Armstrong,  the  Secretary  of  War,  were  with  Win 
der's  column  at  the  first  encounter  with  the  British 
Americaaa  ^t  the  bridge  of  Bladcnsburg,  on  August  24.     The 

routed  at.        .  .  ,  i         />  i         i  t 

Bladens-  American  infantry  gave  way  at  the  first  shock  and 
scurried  out  of  danger.  Their  total  loss  was  one 
man  killed.  The  only  real  fighting  was  done  by 
the  marines  stationed  at  the  bridge.  They  held  the 
bridge  for  one  hour  in  the  face  of  repeated  charges 
by  the  British.  The  losses  of  the  enemy,  here, 
were  greater  than  the  total  number  of  American 
marines.  They  were  surrounded  at  last  by  flank- 
ing parties  that  forded  the  river.     Not  until  Com- 


burg 


1 


1814  Aug.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  631 

modore  Barney  and  Captain  Miller,  his  second  in 
command,  had  been  shot  did  the  marines  surrender. 
The  British  pushed  on  to  Washington  after  the  re- 
treating American  army.     ''The  Eace  of  Bladens- 
burg,"  as  the  battle  was  satirically  called,  and  the     . 
undignified  exploits  of  the  President  and  his  Cabi- 
net, who  took   to  the  woods,  were  a  bitter  pill  for  i^^btof   - 
the  American   patriots  of  those  days.      As  J udge '^'^'^'*^" 
Cranch,  an  eye-witness  of  the  invasion  of  Washing- 
ton, wrote  in  a  letter:  "A  wound  has  been  inflicted 
which  age  will  not  cure;    and  a  scar  has  been  left 
which  time  will  scarcely  efface." 

Before  abandoning  Washington,  the  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  Jones,  ordered  the  Government  Navy 
Yard  to  be  set  on  fire.  T&e  loss  in  ships  and  stores 
was  enormous.  The  British  on  entering  the  town 
followed  suit  by  burning  the  White  Hoase,  the  un- 
finished structure  of  the  Capitol,  with  the  books  and 
archives  of  the  Congressional  Library.  One  of  the 
traditions  of  the  day  is  that  Admiral  Cockburn, 
bursting  into  the  halls  of  Congress,  leaped  upon  the 
Speaker's  chair  and  shouted:  "Shall  this  harbor  of 
Yankee  democracy  be  burned?  All  for  it  will  say 
*Ay.'     The  ays  have  it.     Light  up!"     The  build- oapitoi 

burned  by 

ing  went  up  in  flames.  Two  days  afterward  the  British 
British  marched  to  Marlboro,  twenty-five  miles 
away.  President  Madison  returned  to  the  Capital 
on  horseback,  but  finding  the  White  House  in  ashes 
crossed  the  Potomac  and  joined  his  wife  in  the  coun- 
try. Driven  by  false  alarms  they  took  refuge  in  the 
woods.  The  adventures  of  Secretary  Monroe  were 
scarcely  less  mortifying.     He  had  passed  the  night 


532  ■  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Aug.  1814 

in  seclusion  in  Maryland  until  he  succeeded  in  join- 
ing the  President.  The  British  frigates  came  up  the 
Potomac  River,  and  Fort  Washington  had  to  be 
abandoned.  The  squadron  then  crossed  to  Alexan- 
dria and  destroyed  the  government  buildings  and 
stores. 
Baltimore       Ncxt,  an  attempt  was  made  to  attack  Baltimore. 

threatened  '  r 

The  British  fleet  bombarded  Fort  McIIenry,  while 
the  land  forces  were  to  move  on  the  city.  Both  at- 
tacks were  repulsed.  During  the  bombardment, 
Francis  S.  Key,  who  had  gone  to  the  British  fleet 
under  a  flag  of  truce  to  obtain  the  release  of  a  friend, 
could  see  the  Stars  and  Stripes  blowing  over  Fort 
tKHnbarded  ^^cHenry  from  the  deck  of  the  enemy's  flagship. 
The  British  commander  boasted  to  Key  that  the 
American  garrison  could  not  hold  out  all  night,  and 
that  Baltimore  would  surely  be  taken.  At  early 
dawn  Key  was  up  to  watch  for  a  glimpse  of  the 
American  flag.  When  he  beheld  it  still  waving  he 
wrote  the  famous  song  which  has  become  one  of 
America's  national  anthems. 

_    ,  "Oil,  say,  can  you  see,  by  the  dawn's  early  light, 

stanzas  What  so  proudly  we  hailed  at  the  twilight's  last  gleaming, 

WliOHO  broad  stripes  and  bright  stars,  through  the  perilous  fight. 

O'er  the  ramparts  we  watched  were  so  gallantly  sircammg? 
And  the  rocket's  red  glare,  the  bombs  bursting  in  air. 
Gave  proof  through  tho  night  that  our  flag  was  still  there; 
.Oh,  say,  does  that  star-spangled  banner  j'ct  wave 
O'er  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave?" 

After  the  failure  of  the  attempt  on  Baltimore  the 
British  re-embarked  for  Halifax.  At  this  time  the 
British  had  10,000  soldiers  near  Lake  Champlain, 
with  a  fleet   of   sixteen  vessels,   consisting  of  the 


J814Sept.  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  533 

"Confiance,"  a  86-gun  ship,  two  sloops  with  10  guns 
each,  and  twelve  gunboats.  The  American  ships, 
Tinder  Macdonough,  comprised  the  "Saratoga,"  with 
240  men  and  26  guns;  the  "Eagle,"  20  guns;  "Ti- 
conderoga,"  17  guns;  "Preble,"  7  guns,  and  ten 
gunboats,  in  all  86  guns  against  90.  Prevost,  in 
command  of  the  approaching  British  land  forces, 
reached  the  Saranac  Eiver,  and  saw  the  ridges  be- 
yond surmounted  with  formidable  works  and  the 
American  flotilla  at  anchor. 

On  September  11,  the  British  fleet  hove  in  sight. 
Prevost  ordered  a  general  assault.  The  "Confiance," 
under  Captain  Downie,  sailed  in  and  tried  to  range  ^^^J®®' 
alongside  of  the ' '  Saratoga. ' '  The  first  British  broad  -  champiain 
side  disabled  one-fifth  of  the  "Saratoga's"  crew. 
Captain  Downie  was  killed.  After  a  two  hours' 
fight  the  American  squadron  was  on  the  poiat  of 
capture,  but  Macdonough  wound  ship  and  raked  the 
"Confiance's"  decks  with  one  gun  after  another. 
The  "Confiance"  soon  struck  her  colors,  and  three 
other  British  ships  followed  suit.  Only  the  light 
draught  gunboats  escaped.  The  British  attack  by 
land  was  equally  unsuccessful.  The  news  of  the 
defeat  caused  great  mortification  in  England.  Izard 
returned  to  Sackett's  Harbor  late  in  September,  and 
in  October  went  into  winter  quarters. 

The  American  privateer  "General  Armstrong," 
commanded  by  Captain  Samuel  Keid,  put  into  the 
harbor  of  Fayal  in  the  Azores  about  the  middle 
of  September.  Her  armament  consisted  of  eight 
9-pounders  and  one  long  gun,  with  a  crew  of  ninety 
men.     A  British  squadron,   bound  for  Jamaica  to 


634  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Sept.  1814 

join  Admiral  Sir  Thomas  Cochrane's  naval  expedi- 
tion against  New  Orleans,  halted  at  Fayal  on  Sep- 
tember 25.  The  British  squadron  consisted  of  three 
vessels;  the  flagship  "Plantagenet,"  74  guns,  Cap- 
tain Eobert  Floyd;  the  frigate  "Eota,"  38  guns, 
Captain  Philip  Somerville,  and  the  brig  "Carna- 
tion," 18  guns,  Captain  George  Bentham.  These 
vessels  were  manned  by  2,000  men. 
Fayal °'  On  entering  Fayal  harbor,  Captain  Floyd  sighted 
the  Yankee  privateer  and  distributed  his  ships 
around  her  so  that  escape  was  impossible.  Though 
he  was  in  the  waters  of  Portugal,  a  neutral  power, 
Captain  Reid  put  his  ship  nearer  shore,  with  springs 
on  her  cables  and  boarding  nets.  At  eight  o'clock 
a  number  of  boats  were  lowered  from  the  British 
men-of-war,  and  filled  with  armed  men.  The  ac- 
counts in  regard  to  the  boats  are  conflicting.  An 
English  eye-witness  of  the  afiair  has  reported  that 
there  were  fourteen  boats  with  about  forty  men  each. 
The  "Carnation"  came  within  shot  of  the  privateer 
to  prevent  escape.  At  midnight  all  the  boats  rowed 
close  for  the  attack.  Three  boats  were  sunk  by  the 
American  long  gun  as  they  approached.  The 
others  lay  alongside,  and  the  boarding  nets  were 
hacked  to  pieces.  The  British  sailors  clambered 
over  the  bow  and  stern,  shouting  "No  quarter." 
They  were  cut  down  to  a  man.  The  English  lieu- 
tenant who  led  the  expedition  was  the  first  man 
killed.  Only  two  boats  managed  to  get  back  with 
Portuguese^  handful  of  men.  Early  next  morning  the  Portu- 
protebt  guese  Governor  sent  a  peremptory  request  to  Cap- 
tain Floyd  to  stop  hostilities  in  the  harbor.    Captain 


1814  Sept.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  535 

Floyd  replied  that  he  would  do  as  he  chose,  and  that 
if  he  were  hindered  he  would  treat  Fayal  as  a  hostile 
port.  The  American  captain  prepared  for  the  worst. 
Before  close  of  day  the  British  ships  closed  in  pa 
the  "Creneral  Armstrong"  and  poured  their  broad- 
sides into  her.  The  privateersmen  replied  in  kind, 
and  soon  disabled  the  "Carnation."  Yet  the  fight 
could  have  only  one  end.  The  British  had  threeApiucky 
vessels  against  one  smaller  than  their  smallest,  one  " 
hundred  and  fifty  guns  against  nine,  two  thousand 
men  against  ninety.  Captain  Eeid,  to  avoid  cap- 
ture, scuttled  his  ship,  and  pulled  for  the  shore. 
By  the  time  the  British  reached  the  "General  Arm- 
strong" she  was  beyond  hope.  So  they  set  her  afire 
and  she  burned  to  the  water's  edge.  Captain  Keid 
seized  a  stone  fortress  ashore  and  dared  the  British 
to  follow.  They  did  not  come.  The  "Carnation" 
was  damaged  so  badly,  and  all  the  British  ships  had 
lost  so  many  men,  that  the  British  squadron  had  to 
put  back  to  England  to  refit,  delaying  Sir  Thomas 
Cochrane's  expedition.  As  a  result,  that  admiral 
arrived  at  New  Orleans  four  days  after  Jackson 
reached  there. 
The  affair  in  the  harbor  of  Fayal  resulted  in  a 

Diplomatic 

long  diplomatic  correspondence.  President  Madi-recrimiaa- 
son  took  steps  to  compel  Portugal  to  insist  upon 
the  inviolability  of  her  neutral  ports.  He  also 
claimed  indemnity,  and  obtained  the  promise  of  an 
award,  but  later  Louis  Napoleon,  to  whom  the  matter 
was  referred  as  arbiter,  reversed  the  award.  Great 
Britain  apologized  to  Portugal  for  the  act  of  Captain 
Floyd  in  attacking  an  enemy  in  a  neutral  port. 


536  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Autumn  1814 

The  stirring  fight  at  I'ayal  inspired  James  Jef- 
frey Roche  to  write  the  ballad,  the  opening  lines  of 
which  are: 

Roche's  *  "Tell  the  story  to  your  sons 

ballad  Of  the  gallant  days  of  yore, 

When  the  brig  of  seven  guns 

Fought  the  fleet  of  seven  score. 
From  tlie  set  of  sun  till  morn, 
Through  the  long  September  night — 
Ninety  men  against  two  thousand, 
And  the  ninety  won  the  fight, — 
In  the  harbor  of  Fayal  in  the  Azores," 

Military  movements  in  the  South  attracted  little 
attention,  though  they  were  scarcely  less  important. 
The  hope  of  obtaining  the  Floridas  had  encouraged 
the  Southern  States  to  enter  into  the  war.  The 
President  had  expected  Congress  to  approve  the 
seizure  of  Spanish  Florida.  Andrew  Jackson,  as 
the  most  prominent  military  man  in  the  South,  was 
appointed  major-general  of  militia.  He  wrote:  "If 
the  government  so  orders,  I  will  rejoice  at  the  op- 
portunity of  placing  the  American  eagle  on  the  ram- 
parts of  Mobile,  Pensacola  and  St.  Augustine." 
While  Madison  and  Monroe  raised  no  objection  to 
seizing  the  territory  of  a  friendly  power,  Congress 
was  reluctant  to  act.  At  last  a  bill  was  signed 
authorizing  the  seizure  of  western  Florida  and  the 
Pensacola  occupatlou  of  Mobile.  Pensacola  was  captured. 
This  was  the  only  gain  of  territory  made  during 
the  war. 

A  particularly  atrocious  Indian  massacre  at  Fort 
Mims  in  southern  Alabama  was  avenged  by  General 
Jackson  in  the  battle  of  Horseshoe  Bend,  in  which 
800  Creeks  were  slain.     Not  only  the  power  of  the 


1814  Autumn  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  637 

Creeks  was  broken   at    Horseshoe    Bend,    but   the 
power  of  the  red  men  east  of  the  Mississippi.     At  Ht"e8h'oo 
Tehapecathe  the   long  struggle  for  the   possession  ^''°'* 
of  the  western  world  was  ended  bj  the  surrender  of 
Weathersford.     It  was   plain   even  to  the  Indians 
that  the  continent  had  changed  owners.     Tecumseh 
and  Weathersford  were  the  last  Indian  chiefs  who 
could  style  themselves    spokesmen  of  a  sovereign  - 
race. 

Fort  Jackson  completed  the  line  of  forts  which 
separated  the  Indians  of  northern  Alabama  from  the 
hostile  Indians  and  their  British  allies.  Hundreds 
of  the  Indians  fled  to  the  swamps  of  Florida  after 
Holy  Ground  was  taken.  Jackson  returned  to  Ten-  fndla^u'  war 
nessee  after  eight  months,  and  announced  the  end  of 
the  Indian  troubles.  Peace  reigned  throughout  Mis- 
sissippi, hitherto  uninhabitable  to  white  men. 

In  the  North,  on  the  other  hand,  the  presence  of 
the  British  weighed  heavily  on  the  people  of  New 
England.  A  large  part  of  Maine  and  the  southern 
portion  of  Massachusetts  was  held  by  the  British. 
The  complete  ruin  of  New  England's  shipping  was 
felt  even  more  severely.  As  a  result  the  people  of 
that  section  became  more  confirmed  in  their  hostil- 
ity to  the  war.  From  the  outset  they  had  refused 
to  put  their  State  troops  at  the  disposal  of  the  Fed- 
eral government.  Now  there  was  talk  of  separating 
from  the  rest  of  the  country.  The  Legislature  ofgew^^^ 
Massachusetts  called  for  a  convention  of  delegates ''^^'"'^ 
from  all  the  New  England  States  at  Hartford  "to 
consider  their  public  grievances."  The  story  of 
John  Henry,  a  former  British  spy,  that  plans  were 


538  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Autumn  1814 

a 

underfoot  to  restore  New  England  to  British  rule 
found  ready  credence  in  Washington.  Already  the 
people  of  Nantucket  had  declared  neutrality  and 
placed  themselves  under  British  protection.  Presi- 
dent Madison  and  his  Ministers  grasped  eagerly  at 
the  first  overtures  for  peace  coming  from  England. 
While  the  American  war  was  thus  drawing  to  a 
dreary  close,  the  brief  war  of  Norway  against  Swe- 
den came  to  an  inglorious  end.  Before  leaving 
Paris,  the  representatives  of  the  great  powers  had 
granted  Bernadotte's  request  to  urge  Norway  to  ac- 
scandina-  cent  the  supremacy  ot  Sweden.     The  special  envoys 

Tian  war  f  r  j  sr  j 

of  the  powers  arrived  in  Christiania  on  June  80. 
They  brought  with  them,  besides  their  instructions, 
a  letter  from  the  Danish  king  to  his  son  Christian 
Frederick,  recently  elected  King  of  Norway,  com- 
manding him  to  abdicate  and  return  to  Denmark 
under  pain  of  disinheritance.  Prince  Christian  re- 
fused. A  British  squadron  put  the  Norwegian  coast 
under  blockade.  The  Swedish  fleet,  under  the  per- 
sonal'command  of  Charles  XIII.,  took  up  a  position 
outside  of  Fredericksstad.  Insufficiently  defended, 
the  fort,  on  August  4,  was  compelled  to  surrender. 
About  the  same  time,  the  main  Swedish  army,  under 
Charles  John,  crossed  the  frontier  south  of  Freder- 
ickshald.  One  division  of  it  laid  siege  to  the  for- 
.,  tress  of    Frederickssteen,   which  was   stanchly   de- 

r.orwegian  '  J 

reverses  fg^^ed  by  General  Ohme.  The  Norwegian  army 
was  eager  for  a  general  action;  but  the  king  ordered 
a  retreat  across  the  Glommen  River.  North  in  So- 
loer,  where  Lieutenant-Colonel  Krebs  had  the  com- 
mand, the  Norwegian  forces  were  more  successful. 


1814Autuma  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  539 

A  Swedish  force,  under  General  Gahn,  was  defeated 

by  the  Norwegians  on  August  2,  at  Lier.    The  Nor-  SsTes'' 

wegians,   under  Colonel  Krebs,  afterward  attacked 

the  Swedes  at  Matrand  and  drove  them  back  across 

the  frontier.     The  battle  at  Matrand  was  the  most 

formidable    encounter    during    this    war.     General 

Gahn's  losses  were  16  ofEcers  and  320  men.     The 

Norwegian    loss  was  140  officers   and   men.      This 

was  the  last  important  engagement  of  a  compara- 

11111  A         1        /-I  .  -. .-  Convention 

tively  bloodless  war.  At  the  Convention  of  Moss,  of  Moss 
on  August  14j  the  rebellious  Danish  prince  came  to 
terms.  He  convened  the  Storthing,  or  Norwegian 
Parliament,  to  which  he  surrendered  his  claims  to 
the  crown.  This  done,  he  sailed  back  to  Denmark. 
On  October  20,  the  Storthing  bj  a  vote  of  72  to  5 
accepted  the  supremacy  of  Sweden,  and  elected  the 
King  of  Sweden  for  King  of  Norway.  The  Scandi- 
navian union,  as  finally  agreed  on,  made  the  person 
of  the  king  and  his  management  of  the  foreign  affairs  scandina- 
of  the  country  the  only  common  bond.  Each  coun- 
try had  its  own  constitution,  diet,  and  cabinet.  In 
case  of  war,  Norway  reserved  to  its  own  diet  the 
right  of  refusing  troops  or  financial  support. 

By  the  time  the  diplomats  began  to  assemble  for 
the  Congress  of  Vienna,  much  had  happened  to 
efface  the  transformations  of  the  last  twenty  years. 

In  England  such  important  domestic  problems  as 
the  question  of  the  Corn  Laws  came  up  for  settle- 
ment. During  the  last  years  of  the  contest  with 
Napoleon,  England  by  dint  of  her  own  agricultural 
development  had  rendered  herself  independent  of 
foreign  countries  as  regarded  bread   stuffs.      Now 


Tian  union 


540  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Autumn  1814 

that  grain  could  be  imported  again,  and  this  at  a 
cheaper  price  than  it  was  grown  at  home,  the  landed 
proprietors  and  farmers,  who  had  invested  capital 
and  labor  in  this  species  of  culture,  felt  threatened 
in  the  means  of   their  existence.     The  matter  was 

corn  agita- debated  at  ffreat  length  in  the  Commons  by  Huskis- 
son,  "Vansittart,  Frankland  Lewis,  and  Sir  Henry 
Parnell,  in  favor  of  the  Corn  Law,  with  Rose  and 
Canning  in  the  opposition.  A  bill  was  finallj  passed 
by  large  majorities  in  both  Houses  of  ParJiament, 
establishing  the  sliding  scale,  to  commence  with  a 
duty  on  imported  wheat  of  twenty-four  shillings, 
when  the  price  should  be  sixty- three  shillings  the 

.j-ijgaii^ij,„  quarter;  and  this  duty  was  to  decrease  one  shilling 
for  every  shilling  of  rise  in  the  market  price  of 
grain. 

In  France,  one  of  the  first  results  of  the  restora- 
tion was  that  14,000  of  Napoleon's  old  army  officers 
were  retired  on  half-pay.  The  common  soldiers  had 
to  substitute  the  white  cockade  of  Bourbon  for  their 
tricolor  emblems  of  the  Revolution.  The  head  of 
Napoleon  was  removed  from  the  badge  of  the  Legion 
of  Honor,  and  his  statues  were  dismantled  through- 
out the  land.  Such  idols  of  the  army  as  Mass6na 
and  Davoust  were  exiled  to  their  country  seats  as 
"foreigners."     General  Dupont,  known  only  for  his 

Restora-     disgraceful  capitulation  at  Baylen,  was  made  Min- 

tion  in  "  . 

France  istcr  of  War.  Fouch^  and  Chateaubnand  returned 
to  Paris.  Napoleon's  great  code  of  law  was  wisely 
retained  in  its  entirety.  The  provisions  of  his  fa- 
mous Concordat  with  the  Church  were  repudiated. 
The   Society   of   Jesus    was   invited    to    return    to 


Bourboa 


\ 
1814  Summer  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  641 

France.  The  government's  efforts  to  prohibit  all 
buying  and  selling  on  religious  holidays  and  Sun- 
days precipitated  a  crisis  of  the  Cabinet.  Deep 
offence  was  given  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  now- 
holding  the  new  post  of  Ambassador  to  France, 
by  his  thoughtless  hunting  excursions  through  the 
wheat  fields  of  the  peasants.  Everywhere  in  France 
there  were  premonitions  of  that  situation  which  Na- 
poleon's malevolence  foresaw  when  he  said:  "The 
Bourbons  may  put  France  at  peace  with  Europe; 
but  how  will  they  put  her  at  peace  with  them- 
selves?" 

In  Spain,  the  first  acts  of  Louis  Ferdinand  were 
to  dismiss  the  Cortes,  to  abolish  the  liberal  consti- 
tution of  1812,  and  to  re-establish  the  Inquisition.  Tule'in 

Spain 

Prominent  Liberals  were  placed  under  arrest,  and 
the  censorship  of  the  press  was  restored.  In  the 
face  of  a  financial  crisis  the  clergy  and  their  restored 
monasteries  and  church  lands  were  exempted  from 
taxation.  The  soldiers,  left  unpaid,  degenerated 
into  banditti.  With  commerce  and  agriculture  all 
but  extinct,  the  country  rapidly  relapsed  to  the 
semi- barbarous  condition  of  feudal  times. 

In  certain  parts  of  Germany  similar  changes  went 
into  effect.  The  aged  Prince  of  Hesse,  notorious  of 
old  for  the  way  he  had  farmed  out  his  subjects  for 
service  in  foreign  wars,  abolished  all  modern  reforms 
on  the  day  after  his  return  to  Cassel.  The  Code 
Napoleon  was  set  aside,  as  was  the  decimal  system. 
The  feudal  burdens  of  the  peasantry  were  revived.  ^ 

•^  "^  Petty 

The  former  state  lands  were  wrested  from  their  pur- German^ 
chasers  without  recompense,  and  the  iniquitous  class 


642  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  bummer  1814 

system  of  taxation  was  restored.  Even  pigtails  and 
periwigs  once  more  became  the  order  in  the  army. 
In  Hanover,  torture  was  restored,  and  punishment 
of  death  by  breaking  on  the  wheel.  In  Wurtem- 
berg,  the  peasants  were  once  more  reduced  to  serf- 
dom. 

When  a  part  of  Saxony  was  turned  over  to  Prus- 
sia, and  the  Saxon  troops  in  that  district  revolted, 
the  whole  corps  was  ordered  to  be  decimated.     Gen- 

Prussian 

ruiem       ei'al  Borstel,  the  hero  of  Dennewitz,  was  cashiered 

Saxony  '  ' 

for  refusing  to  burn  the  Saxon  colors.  A  charac- 
teristic incident  occurred  as  the  men  were  drawing 
lots  to  die.  A  drummer  boy  threw  away  the  dice, 
exclaiming:  "It  was  I  that  beat  the  summons  for 
revolt.  I  will  be  the  first  to  die."  He  was  shot 
before  the  eyes  of  his  comrades.  In  Switzerland, 
the  various  cantons  fell  to  quarrelling  among  them- 
selves on  the  score  of  old  territorial  claims,  and  the 
peasantry  took  to  arms, 
macord  in  Such  Were  some  of  the  aspects  of  the  general  situa- 
tion in  Europe  when  the  delegates  to  the  Congress 
of  Vienna  began  to  assemble  in  the  Austrian  capi' 
tal.  Gathered  at  the  court  of  Emperor  Francis  were 
the  Czar  of  Russia,  the  Kings  of  Prussia,  Bavaria, 
Wurtemberg  and  Denmark,  with  nearly  all  the 
statesmen  of  eminence  in  Europe.  By  common  con- 
sent Prince  Metternich  presided  at  the  councils  of 
the  delegates.  Among  them  were  the  Duke  of  Wel- 
lington, Viscount  Castlereagh,  Lord  Stewart,  Count 
Clancarty,  and  General  Cathcart,  representing  Great 
Britain;  Counts  Nesselrode,  Stackelberg,  and  Prince 
Easumovski  attached  to  the  Czar  of   Russia;  Har- 


im  Autumn  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  543 

denberg,  Wilhelm  von  Humboldt,  and  Stein  with 
the  King  of  Prussia;  Prince  Talleyrand  de  P^ri- 
gord,  the  Duke  of  Dalberg,  and  Count  Alexis  de 
Noailles,  representing  HVance;  Count  Loevenhielm 
for  Sweden,  and  a  host  of  other  titled  personages, 
sent  by  Spain,  Portugal,  and  all  the  minor  Grerman 
and  Italian  principalities.  Of  the  recognized  pow- 
ers, only  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  and  the  United  States 
were  unrepresented.     By  way  of  background  to  this 

Congress 

brilliant  picture,  Napoleon's  wife  and  infant  son  could  °^  Vienna 
be  seen  walking  in  the  Gardens  of  Schoenbrunn. 

The  fii;:st  few  weeks  of  the  Congress  were  spent  in 
a  succession  of  magnificent  festivities.  Notwith- 
standing the  financial  ruin  of  the  country,  the  Aus- 
trian Exchequer  diverted  sums  amounting  to  25,000 
guldens  a  day  for  this  purpose.  Among  the  long- 
forgotten  records  of  these  faded  pageantries  one 
chapter  still  stands  forth  with  the  lustre  of  immor- 
tal genius.  Ludwig  van  Beethoven  was  in  "Vienna. 
The  Emperor  placed  the  great  assembly  room  of 
his  court  at  the  disposal  of  the  composer.  Bee- 
thoven was  privileged  to  send  out  invitations  in  his 
own  name  to  all  of  the  sovereigns  and  grandees  then 
in  Vienna.  To  Beethoven  the  homage  and  admirers  Beethoven 
thus  won  came  doubly  welcome,  since  he  had  by 
this  time  turned  totally  deaf,  and  had  been  left  to 
live  in  solitude.  Among  his  compositions  presented 
to  the  world  at  this  period  was  the  descriptive  piece 
on  the  "Battle  of  Vittoria."  He  also  assisted  at  the 
great  mass  which  Talleyrand  arranged  to  solemnize 
the  anniversary  of  the  execution  of  Louis  XVI.  of 
France. 


644  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Autumn  1814 

i 

Talleyrand   was  the  leading  spirit  of  the   whole 
\  Talleyrand  (jo^gpess.      This    was    but    another    proof    of    his 

Ihigh  diplomatic  talents,  for   in   a   secret  clause  of 
,  the  treaty  of  Paris  the  allies  had  agreed  to  exclude 

/  France  from  participation  in  any  of  their  territorial 

(  arrangements.     Talleyrand,  who  was  well  aware  of 

this,  insisted  that  France,  too,  must  now  be  reck- 
oned as  one  of  the  allies,  and  in  the  end  he  carried 
his  point.  He  also  brought  it  about  that  the  Con- 
gress met  in  open  session  and  not  behind  closed 
i  doors,  as  first  arranged  by  Metternich.     Talleyrand 

I  used  the  question  as  to  what  was  to  be  done  wiTh 

-    ^  Saxony  and  the  duchy  of  Warsaw  as  an  instrument 

wherewith  to  break  up  the  concert  of  the  powei*s. 
Eussia  and    Prussia  had  agreed,   in  the    treaty   of 
Kalisch,  that  Prussia  should  yield  all  of  her  Polish 
provinces  to  Russia  and  indemnify  herself  therefor 
by  the  annexation  of  Saxony.     Already  a  Prussian 
military  government  was  administering  Saxony.    To 
this  aggrandizement  of  the  Russian  empire,  Austria 
and  England  were  opposed.     The  British  statesmen 
wanted  to  see  Poland  restored  to  her  former  inde- 
pendence,   while  Austria   dreaded  to  have-  Cracow 
.and  other  Polish  strongholds  on  the  Austrian  fron- 
tier pass  into  Russian  hands.     Talleyrand,  accord- 
\       ingly,  made  the  defence  of  the  King  of  Saxony  the 
keynote  of  his  policy.     In  pursuance  of  this  object 
Metternich  ^^  reared  a  fetich  of  legitimacy,  which  Metternich 
i     promptly  seized  upon  as  the  best  of  means  where- 
I     with  to  hold  together  the  patchwork  fabric  of  the 
Austrian  empire.     The  minor  princes  of  Germany, 
who  had  in  their  day  sided  with  France,  like  the 


V    1814  Autumn  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  545 

King  of  Saxony,  and  who  had  reason  to  fear  the 
growing  strength  of  Prussia,  cordially  agreed  with      [ 
Emperor  Francis's  sentiment:  "It  would  be  too  bad       j 
to  thrust  an  honest  German  prince  from  his  throne." 

Talleyrand's  enthusiasm  for  legitimacy  was  re- 
garded by  the  Englishmen  in  Vienna  as  one  of  the 
drolleries  of  the  former  Minister  of  the  Directory. 
Talleyrand,  in  his  letters  to  Louis  XVIII.,  ascribed 
this  British  attitude  to  a  consciousness  of  their  own 
blood  guilt  toward  Tippoo  Sahib.  Yet,  when  the 
two  northern  powers  had  been  thoroughly  isolated,  \ 

and  France  offered  to  join  her  army  to  those  of  Aus-  I 

tria  and  the  southern  German  States,  England  fell  p-HctioA 
into  line.     A  rash  threat  of  war  by  Hardenberg  waspowe^^'*^ 
followed  by  immediate  armaments  on  the  part  of        / 
Austria,  Hanover  and  Bavaria.     The  Czar  sent  in- 
stant orders  for  his  soldiers,  then  returning  to  Rus- 
sia, to  halt  in  Poland. 

With  another  European  war  in  prospect,  the  Brit- 
ish Ministry  was  glad  to  dispose  of  the  troublesome 
war  with  America  and  its  serious  annoyances  to 
British  maritime  commerce.  The  chief  cause  for 
disDUte  was  removed  by  the  withdrawal  of  the  Orders  desire  for 

^  peace 

in  Council  on  the  collapse  of  the  Continental  block- 
ade. Since  the  time  that  Russia  had  offered  to 
mediate,  commissioners  from  both  countries  had 
been  deliberating  at  Ghent  for  nearly  five  months. 
The  American  commissioners  were  John  Quincy 
Adams,  James  A.  Bayard,  Henry  Clay,  Jonathan 
Russell  and  Albert  Gallatin.  '  Gambler,  Gouldburn 
and  William  Adams  represented  Great  Britain. 
The  original  instructions  of  President  Madison  were 


546  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Winter  1814 

to  insist  on  the  abolition  of  forcible  impressment 
at  sea  as  a  sine  qua  non  of  peace.  The  disquiet- 
ing attitude  of  the  New  England  States  made  the 
American  government  more  tractable.  By  the  time 
the  notorious  Convention  of  Hartford  met,  and  the 
cry  of  disloyalty  was  raised,  Madison's  Secretary  of 
cOTference  ^''^^^  was  ready  for  peace  at  any  price.  Colonel 
at  Ghent  j^^onroe's  last  instruction  to  his  commissioners  was 
this:  "Omit  any  stipulation  on  the  subject  of  im- 
pressment, if  found  indispensably  necessary  to  ter- 
minate the  war."  The  American  commissioners 
accordingly  declared  that,  "the  causes  of  the  war 
having  disappeared  by  the  maritime  pacification  of 
Europe,  the  government  of  the  United  States  does 
not  desire  to  continue  war  in  defence  of  abstract 
principles,  which  have  for  the  present  ceased  to 
have  any  practical  effect."  Both  commissions 
^  agreed  in   the  end  "that  all  questions  betweefi  the 

BUt'usVuo  '^*^  nations  should  be  left  essentially  where  they 
were  when  the  war  began."  In  fine,  nothing  had 
been  accomplished  by  the  war  beyond  the  loss  of 
lives  and  property.  On  the  day  before  the  treaty 
was  ratified,  Henry  Clay  still  stood  out,  exclaim- 
ing: "  'Tis  a  damned  bad  treaty,  and  I  don't  know 
wliether  I  will  sign  it  or  not."  But  on  the  morrow, 
— Christmas — the  treaty  was  signed,  and  peace  was 
held  to  be  concluded. 


1816  Jan.  NINETEENTH   CENTUUT  547 


1815 


y 


THOUGH  a  peace  treaty  had  been  duly  signed 
by  the  commissioners  of  England  and  Amer- 
ica, the  news  of  this  event  did  not  reach  the 
belligerents  for  several  weeks.  From  England,  rein- 
forcements of  5,000  men  had  been  sent  some  time ' 
previously  to  General  Ross,  with  orders  to  "seize  the 
whole  province  of  Louisiana."  ^The  United  States ,^™^'^'"^" 
had  2,378  soldiers  at  New  Orleans.  Andrew  Jackson  "^^^^  °° 
was  in  command.  At  that  time  the  city  of  New 
Orleans  contained  20,000  inhabitants,  including  the 
black^aves,  who  were  greatly  in  the  majority.  Od 
December  15,  1814,  while  Jackson  was  on  a  tour  of 
inspection  in  Louisiana,  the  British  struck  their  first 
blow.  A  few  days  before  they  had  entered  Lake 
Borgne  under  convoy  and  captured  six  American 
gunboats.  Jackson  on  his  return  declared  martial 
law,  and  assumed  dictatorial  powers.  The  British 
lost  no  time.  Seven  thousand  men  were  transferred  ^ 
from  their  ships  to  the  island  in  Lake  Borgne,  The 
British  line  of  advance  was  selected  six  miles  down 
the  Mississippi  from  New  Orleans.  A  force  of  1,688 
British  soldiers  was  landed  three  miles  from  the  Mis- 
sissippi.    Thev  commanded  a  point  which  Jackfeon  tack  New 

^^  J  ^  Orleans 

recognized  as  one  of  the  three  necessary  approaches. 
News  arrived  that  the  British  had  entered  the  near- 


548  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Jan.  1815 

est  plantation.  Jackson  had  2,000  men,  with  two 
field  pieces,  immediately  available.  In  the  river  lay 
an  American  war  schooner,  the  "Carolina,"  armed 
with  one  long  12-pounder  and  six  12-pound  carro* 
Dades.  The  British  had  no  artillery  beyond  two 
8-pounders.  The  Americans  advanced  along  a 
narrow  road  through  the  plantation.  Colonel  Cof- 
fee, with  732  men,  marched  around  to  attack  the 
British  from  the  rear.  Commodore  Patterson  on 
the  "Carolina"  opened  the  fight  at  seven  in  the 
evening.  A  quarter  of  an  hour  afterward  Jackson 
struck  the  British  outposts  while  the  main  column 
was  resting.  The  Americans  rushed  in  on  them  and 
a  brisk  fight  followed.  At  the  same  time  Coffee 
struck  the  British  flank  opposite  the  "Carolina's" 
„  ,,  .       fire.    Within  an  hour  the  British  were  forced  to  seek 

Piellmi- 

u^'Sing  protection  on  an  old  levee.  Their  casualties  were 
277  men.  Jackson  lost  214  of  his  soldiers.  The 
moral  effect  of  the  fight  was  greater  than  the  actual 
military  results.  Jackson's  next  position  was  chosen 
behind  an  old  dry  canal  three-quarters  of  a  mile  in 
length. 

Major-General  Sir  Edward  Pakenham  was  in  com- 
mand of  all  the  British  forces.  They  numbered 
6,500.  The  Americans  deepened  the  canal  and  put 
up  a  parapet  behind  it.  Pakenham  was  reinforced 
by  two  howitzers  and  a  n^ortar  from  the  British  flee^ 
Under  the  fire  of  his  artillery,  the  "Carolina,"  lying 
off  in  the  river,  had  to  be  abandoned.  Early  in 
January,  the  Brjtish  attacked  Jackson's  line  with 
heavy  artillery  fire.  The  fire  became  general  and 
lasted  until  noon.     It  proved  so  disastrous  to  the 


iSlSJan.  NINETEEJSITH   CENTURY  549 

British  that  they  abandoned  their  position  with  their 
guns  at  one  o'clock.  The  British  commanders  at- 
tributed their  defeat  to  the  American  superiority  in 
the  use  of  artillery. 

On  January  4,  Jackson  was  reinforced  by  2,250  Roth  sides 

"^  reinforced 

backwoodsmen  from  Kentucky,  mostly  unarmed. 
The  English  within  a  day  or  so  were  also  rein- 
forced, bringing  their  army  up  to  about  8,000.  On 
January  7,  Jackson  learned  that  a  British  force  had 
crossed  the  river  and  threatened  New  Orleans.  He 
could  do  no  more  than  put  800  of  his  Kentuckians 
on  the  west  bank.  At  six  in  the  morning  Pakenham 
sent  a  force  of  5,300  men  to  the  attack  in  two  col- 
umns. Jackson,  with  an  extended  line  of  picked 
riflemen,  awaited  the  attack  behind  bales  of  cotton. 
When  the  British  lines  came  within  musket-shot  the 
fire  that  met  them  was  so  deadly  that  they  faltered, 
and  after  a  few  rods  of  struggling  advance,  wavered 
and  broke.  General  Pakenham  fell  at  the  head 
of  his  troops,  and  General  Gibbs  was  mortally 
wounded.  A  British  column,  under  Keane,  mean-^^,^ 
while  marched  along  the  road  between  the  river  and 
the  levee.  The  concentrated  fire  from  the  whole 
American  right  wrought  havoc  among  his  troops, 
and  Keane  himself  fell  wounded.  On  the  west  side, 
too,  the  British  were  repulsed,  and  had  to  be  re- 
called from  under  fire.  Next  day,  General  Lam- 
bert, who  had  succeeded  Pakenham  in  command, 
began  preparations  for  a  hazardous  retreat.  On 
January  27,  his  troops  were  re-embarked.  Of  their 
total  force  of  6,666  men,  2,000  were  lost.  The  total 
American  loss  was  71. 


Orleans 


550  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Feb.  1815 

I  When  the  news  of  peace  reached  New  Orleans, 

and  was  communicated  to  the  newspaj)ers  by  M. 
Louaillier,  member  of  the  Louisiana  Legislature, 
Jackson  had  him  put  under  military  confinement. 
Judge  Elall,  who  issued  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus 
for  Louaillier,  was  haled  before  a  drum-head  court- 
martial  en  the  charge  of  ''abetting  and  inciting  mu- 
tiny.' For  this  contempt  of  court,  Jackson  sub- 
sequently had  to  pay  a  fine  of  a  thousand  dollars. 
„  .,. .    ,        General  Lambert,   after    withdrawing  from   New 

British  at-  '  o 

Mobiie°°  Orleans,  decided  to  attack  Mobile  in  Alabama. 
This  plan  was  frustrated  by  the  landing  of  an 
.  American  brigade  in  the  rear  of  Fort  Bowyer  on 
February  8.  The  British  position  was  so  ill  chosen 
that  they  had  no  choice  but  to  capitulate.  They 
surrendered  on  February  11,  while  their  fleet  with- 
drew to  the  West  Indies. 

of'MobUe"^  There  were  several  actions  at  sea  during  this 
period,  which  added  new  laurels  to  the  American 
navy.  Decatur,  m  the  "President,"  fought  the 
"Endymion,"  and  reduced  her  to  a  wreck,  when, 
three  other  ships  coming  to  her  aid,  he  was  com- 
pelled to  surrender  to  this  overwhelming  force. 

The  last  two  naval  actions  of  the  war  were  no  less 
brilliant  for  the  Americans.     These  were   the  cap- 

naval  turc,  in  February,  1815,  by  the  frigate  "Constitu- 
tion," Captain  Stewart,  of  two  British  eloops-of- 
war,  the  "Oyane"  and  "Levant,"  off  the  island  of 
Madeira,  and  in  March,  by  the  "Hornet,"  Captain 
Biddle,  of  the  brig  "Penguin"  off  the  coast  of 
Brazil.  "Thus  terminated  at  sea,"  says  Alison, 
the  British  historian,  "this  memorable  contest,  in 


J815 Spring  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  551 

which  the  English,  for  the  first  time  for  a  century 
and  a  half,  met  with  equal  antagonists  on  their  own 
element;  and  in  recounting  which  the  British  his- 
torian, at  a  loss  whether  to  admire  most  the  devoted 
heroism  of  his  own  countrymen  or  the  gallant  bear- 
ing of  their  antagonists,  feels  almost  equally  warmed 
in  narrating  either  side  of  the  strife." 

On  the  same  day  that  the  British  surrendered  at 
Mobile,  news  arrived  in  New  York  of  the  conclusion 
of  the  peace  negotiations  at  Ghent.  The  American 
Senate  unanimously  confirmed  the  treaty  on  Feb- 
ruary 16.      A  special  message  was  despatched  late  Peace 

■J  ^  or  welcomed 

on  Saturday  evening  to  Boston.    By  making  special  i°  America 
haste   the  messenger  reached  Boston  in  thirty-two  . 
hours.     The  Boston  bells  were  set  ringing  early  oh 
Monday  morning,  and  schools  and  shops  were  closed; 
while  British  and  American   flags  were  hoisted  in 
honor  of  the  event.     In  the  South  the  relief  was 
1  greater.     Along  the  entire  coast,  from  Maine 
Alississippi,  the  news  of  peace  was  received  with  ^ 
•ansports  of  joy. 

Yet  peace  was  still  delayed.  In  midsummer, 
Captain  Warrington,  in  command  of  the  "Peacock," 
captured  the  "Nautilus"  in  the  Straits  of  Sunda. 
On  the  next  day,  July  1, 1815,  he  learned  of  the  rati- 
fication of  peace;  so  he  gave  up  the  "Nautilus"  and 
sailed  for  the  United  States.  When  he  reached 
home  he  found  that  every  cruiser,  both  public  and 
private,  had  returned  to  port  some  time  before.  To 
Warrington,  therefore,  belonged  the  distinction  of^^^^^^ 
having  fired  the  last  shot  of  the  war  between  Amer-^'^o' 
ica  and  England. 


Readjust- 


552  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Spring  1816 

Peace  found  the  United  States  in  a  deplorable 
condition — trade  was  ruined,  commerce  gone,  no 
/  ready  money,  banks  without  credit,  and  a  general 
depression.  In  shipping  alone  it  had  cost  America 
1,683  vessels  and  the  lives  of  18,000  sailors.  Yet, 
such  were  the  resources  of  the  country,-  that  the 
United  States  almost  immediately  entered  on  a 
career  of  unexampled  prosperity.  Cotton  rose  from 
ten  to  over  twenty  cents  per  pound. 

At  Vienna,  during  this  same  time,  the  'diplomats 
of  the  allies  had  virtually  finished  their  labors.  The 
Polish  and  Saxon  difficulties  were  settled  by  Prus- 
sia contenting  herself  with  a  portion  of  Saxony  on 

Europe"^  the  right  bank  of  the  Elbe,  while  Russia  consented 
to  maintain  Poland  as  a  separate  province  and  re- 
linquished her  claim  to  Cracow  and  the  border  for- 
tresses. The  German  states  were  united  in  a  con- 
federacy, with  a  diet  in  which  Austria  and  Prussia 
each  had  two  votes.  Belgium  was  joined  to  Holland 
in  a  kingdom  to  be  ruled  by  the  Prince  of  Nassau. 
He  agreed  to  maintain  the  great  fortress  of  Luxem- 
bourg and  its  surroundings  as  a  stronghold  of  the 
German  confederation.  Holland  likewise  had  to  re- 
linquish all  claim  to  her  colonies,  Demerara,  Esse- 
quibo,  Berbice,  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  forfeited 
to  England  during  the  years  of  war.     In  a  measure 

colonies  she  was  Compensated  therefor  by  England's  restora- 
tion of  the  rich  island  of  Java.  The  various  cantons 
of  Switzerland  were  all  made  part  of  the  Swiss  confed- 
eracy on  an  equal  footing,  and  the  Pope's  dominions 
were  restored.  At  the  request  of  Great  Britain  the 
allied  powers  joined  in  a  declaration  against  the  traf- 


1815  Spring  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  663 

fic  in  black  slaves.     There  remained  only  the  ques- 
tion of  Naples,  where  King  Murat  still  ruled  overuadl 
the  former  possessions  of  the  Bourbons.     The  un-  nanced 
satisfactory   drift   of   affairs   in   France  and  Spain 
under  Bourbon  rule  left  the  representatives  of  the 
other  powers  lukewarm   toward    Talleyrand's  pro- 
Bourbon  representations.       When   Metternich  seat 
secret  inquiries  to  Fouche,  his  spy  in  Paris,  ask- 
ing what  would  happen  if  Napoleon  should  take  it 
into  his  head  to  return  to  France,  Fouch^  replied: 
"Should  a  single  regiment  of  an  army  sent  against  fo^cJ^^^^'s 
Napoleon  declare  for  him,  the  others  would  surely 
follow  the  example.     In  case  nothing  of  the  sort 
happens,  France  of  her  own  volition  will  soon  seek 
refuge  in  the  dynasty  of  Orleans." 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  a  report  suddenly 
reached  Vienna  that  Napoleon  had  left  Elba.  The 
effect  of  this  startling  news  was  magical.  All  differ- 
ences were  sunk  in  the  common  desire  to  meet  the 
situation.  Talleyrand,  to  be  sure,  expressed  a  con- 
viction that  Napoleon  would  only  cross  into  Italy, 
and  there  combine  with  Murat;  and  Wellington 
added    his   contemptuous   opinion   that,    "Even   if 

^  Wellington 

NapoleoD  should  venture  into  France,  he  had  acted  ^^^^■^gjjj, 
upon  false  information,  and  the  king  would  speedily 
destroy  him." 

Others  knew  better.  The  sovereigns  of  Austria, 
Eussia  and  Prussia  had  learned  from  their  own  bit- 
ter experience  whom  they  had  to  deal  with.  Alex- 
ander sent  immediate  orders  to  mobilize  his  army  of 
280,000  men  in  Poland,  and  declared  that  he  would 
throw  all  his  resources  into  the  balance  to  "put  an 

XlXth  Century— Vol.  1—24 


554  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Spring  1816 

end  to  these  revolts  of  Pretoriun  Guards."  The 
Czar  was  the  more  aroused,  since  it  was  he  who 
had  saved  for  Marie  Louise  the  principality  of 
Parma,  and  who  had  opposed  all  jjrojects  to  re- 
move Napoleon  from  Elba,  on  the  ground  that  he 
had  given  his  imperial  word  that  he  should  be  left 
undisturbed.  "We  can  have  no  peace  now,"  ex- 
claimed Alexander.  "There  is  a  mortal  duel  be- 
tween me  and  Napoleon.  He  has  broken  bis  word 
with  me.  I  am  freed  from  my  engagement  to  him, 
and  Europe  shall  have  an  example." 

Napoleon  in  Elba  had  been  kept  well  informed  of 
the  happenings  in  France  and  at  Vienna.  For  sev- 
eral montbs  all  his  old  followers  in  France  were  look- 
ing forward  to  his  return.  "The  soldiers  plotted 
openly,"  says  the  Duke  of  Roviga,  in  his  memoirs, 
•'even  at  the  corners  of  the  streets.  Every  one,  ex- 
cept perhaps  the  Ministers,  knew  what  was  going 
on."  Napoleon  in  Elba  rallied  about  him  his  favorite 
veterans  as  a  bodyguard.  With  the  three  million 
francs  he  had  been  allowed  to  keep  be  purchased  four 
coasting  vessels.  "When  do  we  set  out  for  France?" 
m^exire*"  was  the  standing  question  of  his  officers.  On  Feb- 
ruary 22,  Fleury  de  Chaboulon,  formerly  an  auditor 
in  the  French  Council  of  State,  landed  at  Porto 
Ferrajo.  On  his  own  initiative  he  had  undertaken 
the  mission  to  urge  the  Emperor  to  return.  In  ar- 
dent words  he  informed  Napoleon  of  the  latest  signs 
of  discontent  in  France,  and  of  the  reported  dissolu- 
tion of  the  Congress  of  Vienna.     "Then  they  still 

A  farewell  °  •' 

dance        remember  me?"  inquired  the  Emperor.     "My  sol- 
diers have  not  forgotten  me?"     Napoleon's  resolu- 


1815  Spring  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  55B 

tion  was  soon  taken.  He  despatched  Fleury  to 
Naples,  while  he  gave  orders  for  a  final  ball  at 
court.  His  mother,  then  residing  with  him,  was  f 
alone  informed  of  his  determination.  The  old  I 
woman,  who  had  steadily  followed  her  son's  course 
with  misgivings,  trembled.  Then  she  kissed  him 
and  said:  *'I  see  you  cannot  remain  here.  Go,  and 
may  God  protect  you!"  On  the  night  of  the  ball, 
while  Napoleon's  mother  and  sister  directed  the  fes- 
tivities, the  little  garrison  was  ordered  to  march  to 
the  quay  for  embarkation.  At  four  in  the  morning 
all  the  other  vessels  in  the  harbor  were  embargoed. 
The  Emperor  left  his  guests  in  the  assembly  room  i!^|?^^Efb« 
and,  hastening  to  the  quay,  embarked  with  900  of 
his  followers.  By  sunrise  the  little  flotilla  was 
under  way,  with  Napoleon  leading  on  the  brig  "In- 
constant." As  the  ships  drifted  in  the  uncertain 
breeze,  they  fell  in  with  a  royal  French  brig.  Na- 
poleon ordered  his  soldiers  to  lie  down,  and  his  ship 
saluted  with  the  flag  of  Elba — white,  strewn  with 
bees.  The  French  captain  hailed:  "Howis  the  Em- 
peror?" "Very  well,"  answered  the  pilot.  We 
are  for  Genoa."  "We  go  to  Leghorn,"  answered 
the  Frenchman,  and  so  they  parted.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  March  1,  a  landing  was  made  in  the  Bay  St. 
Jouan,  three  miles  out  of  Antibes.  The  troops  went 
ashore  with  a  cry  of  "Vive  I'Empereur!"  A  detach-  \^^j^^^ 
ment  of  guards  who  proceeded  to  Antibes  were  not 
admitted  within  the  gate,  but  the  inhabitants  readily 
sold  them  provisions  and  horses.  That  night  Na- 
poleon and  his  men  bivouacked  among  the  olive 
trees  of  the  Provence.     The  next  day  the  Emperor, 


556  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  March  1815 

after  a  brief  study  of  the  maps,  struck  out  across 
the  hills  in  the  direction  of  Grenoble.  What  guns 
he  had  brought  with  him  he  left  behind  in  the  ships. 
*'It  is  not  with  cannon  shots  that  I  will  win  this 
campaign,"  he  said.  Over  muddy  roads  and  snow 
ravines  the  column  pressed  onward  at  the  rate  of 
forty  miles  a  day.  Not  until  the  close  of  the  fifth 
day's  march  did  the  mounted  men  riding  in  front 
come  upon  a  detachment  of  royal  soldiery  in  the  vil- 
lage of  La  Mure,  twenty  miles  south  of  Grenoble. 
Napoleon's  Old  Guards  and  the  soldiers  wearing  the 
First         white  cockade    mingled  in  the  streets,   until    their 

bloodless 

encounter  officers  wcrc  filled  with  apprehension  and  drew 
them  off.  The  next  morning,  as  Napoleon's  col- 
umn advanced  on  the  road  to  Grenoble,  they  found 
the  full  regiment  drawn  up  to  block  their  passage. 
"Never  mind,  they  won't  shoot!"  said  tlie  country 
folk.  "Maybe  we  have  been  deceived,"  said  Napo- 
leon to  Bertrand;  "but,  no  matter,  forward!"  He 
himself  rode  forward,  and,  addressing  the  roval 
troops,  called  out  in  a  loud  voice:  "Soldiers  of  the 
Fifth,  do  you  recognize  me?"  "Yes,  Sire, "said  the 
men.  "I  am  your  Little  Corporal.  What  man 
among  you  would  fire  on  me?  Here  is  my  breast!" 
"Vive  I'Empereur!"  shouted  the  veterans,  and 
rushed  forward  to  press  his  hand.  Their  com- 
mander, left  alone,  saw  the  ranks  broken  and  his 
soldiers  trampling  their  white  cockades  underfoot. 
Napoleon  rode  toward  him.  "I  know  you  well, 
Monsieur    Lassard,"    he    said.      "Who   made   you 

Lffeci  lieutenant-colonel?"  "You,  Sire."  "And  before 
that — who    made     you    captain?"      "You,    Sire." 


1815  March  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  657 

"And  jou  wish  to  fight  against  mel"  "Only  be- 
cause it  was  my  duty."  So  saying,  he  tendered  the 
Emperor  his  sword.  Napoleon  took  it  and  pressed 
his  hand.  "We  shall  meet  again  in  Grenoble,"  he 
said.  Then  turning  to  Bertrand  and  Drouot,  he  re- 
marked: "There,  it  is  settled.  To-night  we  shall 
be  in  Grenoble,  and  in  ten  days  in  Paris." 

All  was  settled,  indeed,  and  the  famous  period  of 
the  Hundred  Days  was  well  under  way.  The  vet- 
eran regiments  of  the  various  royal  garrisons  joined 
Napoleon's  column  in  a  body.     As  they  approached 

Grenoble,    Colonel   de    Lab^doy^re   called    out   his  The  Hun- 
dred Day« 

regiment,  and  raising  the  eagle  of  the  seventh, 
marched  to  meet  the  Emperor  with  flying  colors. 
Napoleon  embraced  the  young  officer  and  the  old 
flag.  "We  are  tired  of  seeing  France  humiliated," 
explained  De  Lab^doy^re;  but,  Sire,  everything  is 
changed.  A  new  reign  must  be  inaugurated."  "I 
know  it,"  answered  the  Emperor,  "and  am  resolved 
to  do  so."  This  was  likewise  the  keynote  of  the 
proclamation  he  issued  after  he  entered  Grenoble  in 
triumph: 

"Soldiers!  In  my  exile  I  heard  your  voices.  lGre^Q^?o°' 
am  come  through  all  obstacles  and  dangers.  Your 
General,  summoned  to  the  throne  by  the  prayer  of 
the  people,  and  raised  upon  your  shields,  is  now 
restored  to  you.  Come  and  join  him!  Tear  down 
those  colors  which  were  proscribed  by  the  nation, 
and  which  for  twenty -five  years  all  the  enemies  of 
France  have  rallied  round  I  Display  the  tricolor 
which  you  carried  in  our  great  battles!  Win  back 
those  eagles  which  you  won  at  Ulm,  Austerlitz, 
Jena,  Eylau,  Friedland,  and  Wagram! 


558 


A    HISTORY    OF   THE 


March  1815 


France  in 
frenzy 


"The  Two 

Grenar 

diers" 


*'Come,  soldiers!  stand  bj  the  banners  of  your 
chief!  His  life  is  only  yours;  his  rights  are  only 
yoars  and  the  people's;  his  interests,  his  honor,  and 
his  glory  are  only  your  interests,  your  honor,  and 
your  glory.  Victory  will  march  at  the  double;  the 
eagle,  with  the  colors  of  the  nation,  will  fly  from 
steeple  to  steeple,  even  to  the  towers  of  Notre  Dame! 
Then  will  you  be  able  to  boast  of  your  deeds,  thea 
will  you  be  the  liberators  of  your  country!" 

The  wonderful  personal  magnetism  of  the  great 
captain  once  more  exerted  its  full  influence  on  his 
soldiers.  The  rhapsody  of  the  Hundred  Days  was 
its  token.  In  its  most  poetic  expression  this  frenzy 
of  France  has  come  down  to  us  in  the  immortal 
lyrics  of  Beranger.  The  wild  loyalty  of  the  French 
soldiers  of  those  days,  curiously  enough,  has  still 
better  been  rendered  by  a  German  poet.  It  was 
Heinrich  Heine's  famous  song  of  the  "Two  Grena- 
diers" that  afforded  to  Schumann  an  opportunity  to 
let  his  stirring  music  hark  back  to  the  forbiddea 
strains  of  the  "Marseillaise": 

Straggling  to  France  went  two  grenadiers, 
Who  were  taken  captive  m  Russia; 

Hanging  their  heads  to  hide  their  tears 
They  crossed  the  frontier  of  Prussia. 

'Twas  then  their  spirits  were  saddened  most 

When  thej  learned  how  France  had  been  shaken-^ 

Defeated  and  scattered  the  valiant  host, 
And  the  Emperor,  the  Emperor  taken. 

Full  bitterly  wept  the  two  grenadiers 
When  they  heard  the  wofui  story, 

And  one  of  them  said:  "How  salt  are  my  tears- 
How  burning  my  wound  and  gory." 

The  other  muttered:   '"Tis  the  end  oi  the  dance; 

I  am  sick  of  life  and  aweary : 
£ut  I  liave  a  wife  and  child  in  France, 

Without  me  their  lot  will  be  dreary." 


J815  March  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  659 

"What  care  I  for  children,  what  for  a  wifel 
A  heavier  care  has  arisen. 
Let  ihem  beg  for  bread  to  keep  up  life — 
The  Emperor,  the  Emperor  in  prisoul 

*'0h,  grant  me,  brother,  but  one  demand, 
When  life's  last  hours  I  number; 
Take  with  you  my  corse  to  our  native  land, 
In  French  soil  let  me  slumber; 

**My  Gross  of  Honor  and  crimson  band 
Place  next  to  my  heart  for  a  neighbor. 
And  put  my  carbine  in  my  hand, 
Then  buckle  on  my  sabre  I 

•*Thus  shall  I  lie  still  to  watch  and  peer 
As  a  sentinel  stands  o'er  the  forces, 
Until  the  roaring  of  cannon  I  hear 

And  the  hoof-beat  of  neighing  horaea-* 

"Then  will  my  Emperor  ride  over  my  grave 
While  sabres  glitter  and  rattle, 
Then  armed  to  the  teeth  shall  I  rise  from  my  grave 
For  the  Emperor,  the  Emperor  to  battle!" 

On  March  8,  Napoleon  set  out  for  Lyons,  at  the 
head  of  seven  thousand  men  ready  to  die  in  his 
cause.  A  semaphore  despatch,  giving  the  news 
of  Napoleon's  landing,  reached  Paris  on  March  5. 
At  first  only  the  king  was   troubled.     While  the  Pans  ^ 

•'  ^  alarmed 

matter  was  kept  a  profound  secret  in  Paris, 
the  princes  of  the  royal  house  hastened  to  Lyons, 
Bordeaux  and  La  Vendue,  to  see  to  the  army. 
Marshals  Ney  and  Macdonald,  who  were  held  to 
have  compromised  themselves  with  Napoleon  when 
they  prepared  the  way  for  his  abdication,  were  de- 
spatched to  Besan9on  and  Nlmes  to  take  charge 
of  the  troops  there.  Marshal  Soult,  in  his  capacity 
as  Minister  of  War,  issued  an  address  to  the  army 
denouncing  the  Emperor.  Mortier  was  placed  at 
the   head   of  the   troops   in   the   north   of   France; 


560  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  March  1815 

Augereau  was  despatched  to  Normandy;  full  powers 
were  transmitted  to  Mass^na,  at  Toulon;  and  Oudi- 
not  took  direction  of  the  forces  at  Marseilles,     la 

jjjgQjj,g  the  meantime,  Napoleon's  advance  was  unopposed. 

unchecked  Defection  after  defection  occurred  in  the  army;  and 
It  was  soon  learned  that  the  corps  of  30,000  men, 
posted  by  order  of  Soult  on  the  frontier  between 
Besan9on  and  Lyons,  were  in  large  masses  deserting 
the  royal  standard.  The  Count  of  Artois,  the  Duke 
of  Orleans,  and  Macdonald  could  make  no  impres- 
sion either  on  the  troops  or  on  the  mass  of  the 
people.  They  returned  discouraged,  and  Napoleon, 
on  the  12th  of  March,  took  possession  of  Lyons. 
This  great  success  at  once  gave  him  command  of 
the  centre  of  France. 

^sSersdis-     When  Marshal  Ney  took  leave  of  the  king  at  the 

couraged'  T^^ig^-gg^  ^le  kisscd  his  hand  and  said:  "Sire,  I  will 
bring  Bonaparte  back  in  an  iron  cage."  At  Aux- 
erre,  Ney  was  sought  out  by  Gamotte,  his  brother- 
in-law,  a  great  admirer  of  Napoleon.  He  intro- 
duced to  him  emissaries  from  the  Emperor,  who 
beset  him  with  such  arguments  as  Napoleon  knew 
would  appeal  to  his  warm-hearted  lieutenant  and 
comrade-in-arms.  These  appeals  from  his  former 
chieftain  proved  too  much  for  Ney.  As  he  himself 
explained  at  his  subsequent  trial  for  high  treason: 
^'I  had  indeed  kissed  the  hand  of  the  king,  his 
majesty  having  presented  it  to  me  when  he  wished 
me  a  good  journey.  The  descent  of  Bonaparte  ap- 
peared to  me  so  extravagant,  that  I  spoke  of  it 
with  indignation,  and  made  use  of  the  expression 
charged,   relative   to   the  iron  cage.     In  the  night 


1815  March  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  561 

of  March  13 — down  to  which  time,  I  protest  my 
fidelity — I  received  a  proclamation,  drawn  by  Napo- 
leon, which  I  signed.  Before  reading  it  to  the 
troops,  I  submitted  it  to  General  Bourmont,  who 
sail]  it  was  necessary  to  join  Bonaparte,  and  that 
the  Bourbons  had  committed  such  follies  that  they 
could  no  longer  be  supported." 

On  that-  occasion  some  of  the  royalist  officers 
broke    their    swords,     saying:    "You    might    haveNey's 

'  *'       °  °  defection 

spared  us  that,"  but  the  bulk  of  the  army  hastened 
in  eager  marches  to  join  their  Emperor.  Napoleon 
received  Ney  with  open  arms.  He  cut  short  all 
Ney's  explanations,  saying:  "Do  you  think  I  could 
ever  forget  Friedland?"  The  defection  of  Ney, 
followed  by  that  of  the  whole  army,  opened  the 
way  to  Paris  and  drove  Louis  XVIII.  from  his 
throne. 

When  the  news  of  Ney's  act  reached  the  capital, 
the  king  called  for  a  review  of  the  garrison  in  Paris. 
Only  a  small  part  of  the  National  Guard  responded. 
Another  review  was  ordered  for  March  19,  and 
those  of  the  troops  that  put  in  their  appearance, 
consisting  largely  of  the  royal  guards,  were  drawn 
off  to  Beauvais  on  the  other  side  of  Paris.  The 
significance  of  this  manoeuvre  was  made  plain  that 
niglit,  when  the  king  with  his  household  left  the 
Tuileries  and  drove  to  Beauvais.  Thence  he  took  FiiKht  of 
post  to  Lisle,  and  fled  across  the  border  to  Ghent ^^i"- 
in  Flanders. 

Napoleon  arrived  at  Fontainebleau  on  the  19th, 
and  proceeded  to  Paris  next  day.  He  reached  the 
Tuileries  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening.     The  mo- 


662  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  March  1815 

ment  his  carriage  stopped  at  the  gates,  he  was 
seized  by  his  waiting  friends,  borne  aloft  in  their 
arms  amid  deafening  cheers,  through  a  brilliant 
throng  of  officers,  and  hurried  up  the  great  stair 
into  the  reception  hall.  Here,  an  array  of  ladies 
of  the  Imperial  Court  received  him  in  state.  Later, 
at  St.  Helena,  Napoleon  described  this  day  as  one 
of  the  most  delightful  of  his  life. 

On  the  morrow  the  Emperor  set  himself  to  work 
to  form  a  Cabinet.     Fouche  was  summoned  and  de- 

Tn^^S"  manded  the  portfolio  of  Foreign  Affairs.  He  was 
persuaded  instead  to  resume  his  functions  as  chief 
of  police.  Coulaincourt,  though  plainly  reluctant, 
was  made  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs.  Marshal 
Davoust,  who  had  been  under  a  cloud  during  the 
Restoration,  readily  agreed  to  be  Minister  of  War. 
Cambacer^s,  Carnot  and  Benjamin  Constant  made 
up  the  Council  of  State.  It  was  plain  that  a  return 
to  republican  principles  was  unavoidable. 

The  threatening  attitude  of  the  great  powers  and 
a  series  of  royalist  risings  in  the  south  of  France 
soon  convinced  Napoleon  that  he  need  not  hope 
to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  last  coup  d'itat  in  peace. 
His  envoys  to  the  Emperor  of  Austria  were  turned 

^l^vitabie  back  at  the  frontier.  Caulaincourt's  efforts  to  pro* 
cure  a  hearing  for  his  master  failed  utterly.  Secret 
emissaries  who  tried  to  rescue  the  Empress  and  the 
King  of  Rome  from  Vienna  could  not  induce  Marie 
Louise  to  risk  the  loss  of  Parma.  Even  Napoleon's 
decree  abolishing  the  slave  trade  fell  flat  on  the 
statesmen  of  England. 

On   March    25,    the    allied    powers,    reconvening 


1 


WIS  March  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  563 

1 
their  Congress  at  Vienna,  concluded  a  new  treaty 

on  the  basis  of  that  of  Chaument.     The  Cabinets  of 

Russia,  Prussia,  Austria  and  Great  Britain  engaged 

to  "unite   their  forces  against  Bonaparte   and   his 

faction,    in    order     to     prevent     him     from    again        I 

troubling   the  peace  of  Europe;   they  each  agreed        • 

to  furnish  180,000  men  for  the  prosecution  of  theC'op,'^®^^ 

'  A  of  Vienna 

war;  and,  if  necessary,  to  draw  forth  their  entire  vened\ 
military  force  of  every  description."  By  a  secret 
treaty,  concluded  on  the  same  day,  it  was  stipu- 
lated that  the  contracting  parties  should  not  lay 
down  their  arms  until  they  had  effected  the  de- 
struction of  Napoleon;  and  that  England  should 
supply  the  funds.  All  the  lesser  powers  of  Europe 
acceded  to  these  treaties  within  a  fortnight  after 
their  ratification. 

An  international  declaration  was  issued:  ] 

•'The  powers  vv^hich  signed  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  Jo>nt not© 
reassembled  in  congress  at  Vienna,  being  informed 
of  the  escape  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte,   and  of  his        . 
entry  with  an  armed  force  into  France,   owe  it  to        | 
th.^.ir  own  dignity  and  to  the  interest  of  the  nations 
to  make  a  solemn  announcement  of  their  sentiments 
on  the  occasion.     In  thus  breaking  the  convention 
which   had  established   him  in  the  island  of  Elba, 
Bonaparte  has  destroyed  the  sole  legal  title  which 
is  attached  to  his  political  existence.     By  reappear- 
ing in    France   with   projects  of  trouble  and  over- 
throw he  has  deprived  himself  of  the  protection  of     . 
tne  laws,  and  made  it  evident,  in   the  face  of  the     f 
world,  that  there  can  no  longer  be  peace  or  truce    | 
with  him.     The  powers  therefore  declare  that  Bona-     | 
parte  has  placed  himself  out  of  the  pale  of  civil  and     i 
social  relations;  and  that,  as  the  general  enemy  and    ; 


564 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


March  1816 


0«Deral 
mobiliza- 
tion 


New 
French 
constitu- 
tion 


disturber  of  the  world,  he  is  abandoned  to  public 
justice." 

The  instrument  bore  the  signatures  of  Mettemich, 
Talleyrand,  Wellington,  flardenberg,  Nesselrode, 
and  Loevenhielm,  On  all  sides  they  began  to 
mobilize.  Even  in  Switzerland  and  Holland  the 
militia  were  called  to  the  frontiers. 

Napoleon  realized  that  all  hopes  for  peace  were 
illusory.  He  himself  informed  the  reconvened 
Chambers  of  the  coming  storm.  The  utmost  ex- 
ertions were  made  for  defence.  The  veterans,  but 
lately  returned  from  their  imprisonment  in  Ger- 
many and  Russia,  were  called  from  their  homes. 
Arms  and  ammunition  were  turned  out  at  top  speed. 
Napoleon's  splendid  genius  for  organization,  now 
put  to  the  last  strain,  appeared  at  its  best.  Within 
a  month  he  had  an  army  of  120,000  veterans  under 
arms.  In  the  meanwhile,  the  new  French  Consti- 
tution, the  "Acte  Additionnel,"  drawn  up  by  Ben- 
jamin Constant,  was  breeding  trouble  at  Paris.  The 
Republicans,  feeling  themselves  in  the  saddle,  in- 
sisted on  curbing  the  Emperor's  despotic  tendencies. 
Surrounded  by  such  irreconcilables  as  Carnot,  Con- 
stant, Lafayette,  and  his  own  brother  Lucien,  not 
to  mention  the  treacherous  Fouch^,  Napoleon  had 
to  fight  for  every  one  of  his  measures.  When  Car- 
not finally  raised  the  threat  of  civil  war.  Napoleon 
broke  out:  "See  nere,  Carnot,  with  you  I  have  no 
need  of  disguise.  You  have  a  hard  head,  and  can 
see  through  the  shell  of  things.  Let  us  not  sow  the 
seed  of  discord  when  the  closest  union  is  needed  to 
save  the  country  I    Let  us  first  save  France;  after 


1815  March  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  565 

that  I  will  accede  to  everything."  Carnot  gave  in, 
and  from  that  hour  left  Napoleon  free  to  pursue  his 
measures.  When  Fouch^  was  informed  of  this  at  -^ 
the  next  Cabinet  session,  he  said  without  reserve: 
"If  that  man  should  attempt  to  curb  the  Jacobin 
principles  we  will  overturn  him  at  once,  and  for- 
ever." Napoleon,  who  knew  that  Fouche  had  en- 
tered into  relations  with  the  royalists  in  the  Ven- 
due, and  who  had  lately  been  placed  in  possession 
of  one  of  Metternich's  secret  despatches  to  Fouche, 
summoned  his  Minister  of  Police  before  the  Council 
and,  disclosing  his  treason,  declared  that  he  should 
be  shot  the  next  morning.  Carnot  told  the  enraged  p^^^^^^ 
Emperor  that  this  was  no  time  for  shooting  cabinet  '^™^^-'^ 
ministers,  and  that  such  measures,  now,  would  com- 
promise him  before  the  whole  nation.  Napoleon 
yielded  with  ill  grace.  His  last  words  to  Fouch^ 
were: 

"Like  all  other  persons  who  are  ready  to  die,  we 
have  nothing  to  conceal  from  each  other.  If  I  fall, 
the  patriots  fall  too;  you  will  play  your  game  ill, 
if  you  betray  me.  Your  party  will  perish  under 
the  rule  of  the  Bourbons:  I  am  your  last  dictator — 
remember  that!" 

The  first  blow  was  prematurely  struck  by  Murat. 
On  the  last  day  of  March  he  crossed  the  Po  withMurat's 

1 1      1        T      1  premature 

30,000  Neapolitans,  and  called  upon  all  the  Italians  stroke 
to  assert  their  independence.  After  some  indecisive 
encounters,  the  Austrian  generals  Bellegarde,  Bian- 
chi  and  Fremont  united  their  forces,  and,  on  April 
9,  fell  upon  his  at  ToUentino.  The  Neapolitans 
took    to    their    heels,    and   Murat   fled    to   France. 


566  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  April  1815 

Ferdinand  VII.  promptly  returned  to  his  lost 
tbrone  in  Naples  and  was  there  reinstalled  with 
the  help  of  British  cruisers.  Napoleon  was  so  in- 
censed at  this  stroke  of  ill-fortune  that  he  would 
not  even  appoint  his  veteran  cavalry  leader  to  a 
command  in  his  own  army. 

Next,  hostilities  broke  out  in  the  south  of  France. 
Louis  La  Roche  Jaquelein  landed  on  the  coast  of 
La  Vendue  and  raised  the  people  to  revolt.     Napo- 

Vendeans  *■  ' 

revolt  leon,  in  just  alarm  at  this  menace  of  civil  war,  de- 
spatched a  force  of  20,000  men  under  General  La 
Marque  and  Travot  to  that  region.  The  first  battle 
was  disastrous  for  the  royalists.  Auguste  L;i  Roche 
Jaquelein  lost  his  life.     This  ended  the  revolt. 

At  Vienna,  in  the  meanwhile,  arrangements  had 
been  made  to  form  forthwith  three  great  armies  from 
the  allied  forces;  the  first,  of  265,000,  chiefly  Aus- 
trians  and  Bavarians,  to  be  stationed  on  the  Upper 
Rhine,  and  commanded  by  Schwarzenberg;  the  sec- 
ond, of  155,000  Prussians,  on  the  Lower  Rhine, 
under  Bliicher;  the  third,  of  100,000,  composed  of 

allies  °^     English,   Hanoverians    and   Belgians,    in    the   Low 
Countries,   under  Wellington.      It  was  further  re 
solved   that    military   operations    should    be    com 
menced    early  in    June;    previous   to   which    time, 
the   Russian    army,    170,000   strong,   might   be   ex 
pected    to   reach   the    Upper    Rhine   from   Poland 
and,  entering  France  by  Strasburg  and   Besau9on 
to   form   a   reserve   for    the   invading   armies   from 
the  east.     In    addition    to   the   operations  of   these 
large    masses,   lesser   movements  were  to  be  made 
on  the  side  of  Switzerland  and  the  Pyrenees. 


1815  Spring  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  567 

From  this  plan  of  the  campaign,  it  was  evident 
that  the  British  troops  in  Flanders  would  first  be 
exposed  to  the  shock  of  war;  and  the  British  Cabi- 
net made  exertions  proportionate  to  the  emergency. 
On  April  6,  a  message  from  the  Prince  Regent  for- 
mally announced  to  both  Houses  of  Parliament  the 
events  which  had  recently  occurred  in  France,  the 
measures  adopted  by  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  and 
the  necessity  of  augmenting  the  military  and  naval 
forces  of  the  kingdom.  The  supplies  of  men  and 
money  requisite  to  the  undertaking  were  immedi-  England's 
ately  voted  by  Parliament;  and  in  addition  to  thetufiw''^^ 
enormous  sums  wherewith  to  support  her  own  naval 
and  military  establishments,  Great  Britain  granted 
and  paid  to  the  several  allied  powers,  within  the 
year,  subsidies  to  the  amount  of  more  than  eleven 
million  pounds. 

Wellington,  after  careful  deliberation,  resolved 
to  invade  France  directly  from  Flanders,  between 
the  Maine  and  the  Oise;  but,  in  order  to  conceal  his 
design,  he  recommended  that  the  Austrians  and  Rus- 
sians should  first  cross  the  French  frontier  by  Befort 
and  Huningen,  and,  when  this  was  accomplished, 
that  the  British  and  Prussians  united  should  march 

WelMng- 

upon  Paris  by  Mons  and  Namur.  He  had  80,000  *o°^|g 
men  under  his  orders,  of  whom  46,000  were  British. 
Twelve  thousand  of  these  were  veterans  of  the 
Peninsula.  The  rest  were  Dutch-Belgians  under 
the  Prince  of  Orange,  Brunswickers  under  their 
Duke,  and  the  Hanoverian  Legion  under  Wall- 
moden.  Wellington  himself,  rather  ungraciously, 
described  his  force  as  an  "infamous  army."     Blii- 


568 


A    HISTORY   OF    THE 


June  1815 


Blucher"s 
army 


Napoleon 
at  the 
front 


French 

tnavo- 
ments 


Allies 
ioactire 


cher  had  an  army  of  108,000  men,  all  Prussians,  and 
burning  once  more  to  avenge  the  injuries  to  their 
country. 

ISJapoleon  hastened  to  take  command  of  his  army 
in  that  quarter.  The  Emperor's  plan  of  campaign 
was  based  on  the  necessities  of  his  situation,  and  the 
imperative  need  of  an  early  success,  so  as  to  enable 
him  to  meet  the  advance  of  the  Russians  and  Aus- 
trians  from  the  other  side.  For  the  direction  of 
public  affairs  in  France  during  his  absence  Napo- 
leon appointed  a  provisional  government,  including 
his  brothers  Joseph  and  Lucien,  Cambacer^s,  Da- 
voust,  Coulaincourt,  Fouchd,  Carnot,  Goudin,  Mol- 
lien,  and  D^cr^s.  This  done,  the  Emperor  left  Pans 
on  June  12,  and  joined  the  army  on  the  14th. 

Forthwith  he  moved  his  men  into  camp  at  Laon, 
behind  the  screening  chain  of  fortresses  on  the  Bel- 
gian frontier.  BlUcher's  army  lay  on  the  bank  of 
the  Sambre  and  Meuse,  from  Li^ge  on  his  left  to 
Charleroi  on  his  right.  Wellington  covered  Brus- 
sels. It  was  on  Charleroi  that  Napoleon  resolved 
to  direct  his  first  attack  in  the  hope  of  cutting  the 
two  armies  apart. 

On  June  10,  Wellington  received  information — 
which  proved  to  be  misleading — that  Napoleon  haa 
reached  Maubeuge  with  his  troops.  Yet  neither 
Bliicher  nor  Wellington  took  steps  to  concentrate 
their  forces.  When  the  French  troops  crossed  the 
frontier  near  Fleurus  on  the  15th,  Wellington's  men 
lay  in  cantonments  from  the  Scheldt  to  Brussels, 
and  BlUcher's  extended  as  far  as  Namur.  This 
inactivity  would    be   inexplicable    but  for  this  ac- 


MlSJune  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  669 

count    of    the    matter    given    by    Fouch^    in    his 
memoirs. 

That  arch  traitor  had  promised  to  furnish  the 
British  commander  with  a  detailed  plan  of  the 
campaign.  Wellington  was  in  hourly  expectation 
of  this  intelligence,  and  quietly  awaited  its  arrival. 
Why  he  did  not  receive  it,  Fouch^  thus  explains: 

"My  agents  with  Metternich  and  Lord  Welling- 15;^» 
ton  had  promised  everything,  and  the  English  gen- 
eral at  least  expected  I  would  give  him  the  plan  of 
the  campaign.  I  knew  that  Napoleon  would  attack 
the  British  army  on  the  16th,  or,  at  latest,  on  the 
18th,  after  having  marched  right  over  the  Prussians. 
fle  had  the  greater  reason  to  expect  success,  inas- 
much as  Wellington,  deceived  by  false  reports,  be- 
lieved that  the  opening  of  the  campaign  might  be 
deferred  till  the  beginning  of  July.  Napoleon, 
therefore,  trusted  to  a  surprise,  and  I  arranged  my 
plans  in  conformity.     On  the  day  of  his  departure, 

i  despatched  Madame  D with  notes,  written  in 

cipher,  containing  the  whole  plan  of  the  campaign; 
but  at  the  same  time  I  sent  such  orders  to  the  fron- 
tier as  would  prevent  her  reaching  Wellington's 
headquarters  until  after  the  catastrophe.  This  is 
the  true  explanation  of  the  British  generalissimo's 
inactivity,  which,  at  the  time,  excited  such  univer- 
sal astonishment." 

The  French  army  crossed  the  frontier  at  daybreak 
on  the  15th,  and  moved  upon  Charleroi.     The  Prus-  charierol  , 
sian  force,  which   occupied   that  town,  was  driven 
out,  and  fell  back  on  Fleurus.     Thus,  Napoleon's 
first  object,  that  of  taking  his  enemy  by  surprise. 


670  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  June  1815 

was  accomplislied,  and  he  now  confidently  expected 
to  separate  the  two  allied  armies.  For  this  purpose 
he  despatched  Ney  with  the  left  wing,  46,000  strong, 
to  Quatre-Bras,  a  point  of  intersection  of  the  roads 
from  and  to  Brussels,  Nivelles,  Charleroi  and  Na- 
mar;  while  he  himself,  with  72,000  men,  pushed  on 
toward  Fleurus  to  assail  Bliicher,  who  was  concen- 
trating his  army  with  all  possible  haste,  and  falling 
back  upon  Ligny.  Wellington  received  word  of 
these  movements  at  Brussels  on  the  evening  of  the 
15th,  and  he  immediately  sent  orders  to  his  troops 
to  concentrate  at  Quatre-Bras. 

Bliicher's  army,  excepting  the  fourth  corps,  which 
had  not  yet  come  up,  arrayed  themselves,  on  the 
16th,  on  the  heights  between  Brie  and  Sombref,  and 
strongly  occupied  the  villages  of  St.  Amand  and 
Prussian  Ligny  in  front.  The  position  was  well  chosen. 
The  villages  afforded  an  excellent  shelter,  while 
the  artillery,  placed  on  a  semicircular  ridge  between 
them,  commanded  the  entire  field,  and  the  elevation 
in  the  rear,  surmounted  by  the  windmill  of  Bussy, 
formed  a  good  rallying  point  in  case  of  disaster. 

Napoleon  afterward  recorded  in  his  memoirs  that 
he  attacked  Bliicher  first  because  he  well  knew  that 
Bliicher  would  not  be  supported  by  the  overprudent 
English  commander;  whereas,  if  Wellington  had 
been  attacked  first,  the  Prussians  would  surely 
hasten  to  his  support.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Wel- 
lington himself  rode  over  to  Bliicher's  lines  on  the 
morning  of  the  16th  and  promised  him  his  support. 
Apart  from  that,  it  is  on  record  that  Napoleon 
attacked   both  commanders  almost  simultaneously, 


position 


1815 June  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  671 

for  the  distinct  purpose  of  preventing  them  from 
detaching  troops  in  aid  of  one  another.  Only,  in 
accordance  with  his  oft-tried  strategy,  he  endeav- 
ored to  crush  each  of  his  opponents  successively 
by  a  rapid  concentration  of  superior  numbers. 

In  the  fight  at  Quatre-Bras,  in  which  the  British  K'^ 
held  their  ground,  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  fell  a 
sacrifice.  At  Ligny,  by  a  series  of  superb  manoeu- ^^.^^^ 
vres,  Napoleon  completely  routed  the  Prussians. 
They  lost  1,200  men  and  21  guns.  While  trjnng 
to  stem  the  onslaught  of  the  French  cavalry,  Blii- 
cher's  horse  was  shot  under  him,  and  two  succes- 
sive cavalry  charges  passed  over  his  senseless  body. 
After  nightfall  his  aide-de-camp,  Count  Nostitz,  re- 
turned to  the  battlefield  and  succeeded  in  drawing 
the  field  marshal  from  beneath  his  horse.  When 
Bliicher  revived  it  was  only  to  find  his  army  routed. 
A  characteristic  anecdote  is  that  when  the  surgeon 
attempted  to  rub  his  injured  leg  with  spirits,  Bliicher 
exclaimed:  "The  stuff  is  of  no  use  taken  outside," 
and  drank  it  down. 

Bliicher's  second  in  command,  General  Gneisenau,  oneise- 

nau"s 

saved  the  situation  by  conducting  the  retreat  north-  s^ategy 
ward.  Thus  he  brought  the  shattered  Prussian  col- 
umns once  more  in  communication  with  the  British. 
Of  the  three  Prussian  army  corps  that  had  figured 
in  the  battle,  two  were  so  speedily  rallied  at  Wavre 
that  Grouchy's  division,  later,  was  not  strong  enough 
to  prevent  their  junction  with  the  British. 

The  ill  success  of  Ney's  attack  on  the  British  lines 
at  Quatre-Bras  was  attributed  by  him  to  the  fact 
that  the  army  corps  of  General  d'Erlon,  which  Na- 


572  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  June  1815 


d'Erlon's 


poleon  had  placed  between  himself  and  Ney,  was 
w^"ed  ^  first  withdrawn  from  >l  ey  to  assist  at  Ligny.  Later, 
when  d'Erlon  was  recalled  from  that  battlefield  to 
succor  i^ej,  he  could  not  reach  Quatre-Braa  until  it 
was  too  late. 

Much  has  been  written  of  the  scenes  and  incidents 
at  Brussels  that  preceded  the  Battle  of  Waterloo. 
When  the  news  of  Napoleon's  first  advance  arrived 
the  flower  of  the  British  army  was  assembled  at  the 
Countess  of  Eichmond's  ball  at  the  British  Embassy. 
The  Duke  of  Brunswick  was  the  first  to  husten  from 
the  ballroom  to  his  death.  William  Makepeace 
Thackeray,  in  his  novel  "Vanity  Fair,"  has  brought 
the  brilliant  scene  to  life  again  in  the  chapter  de* 
The  Eve  of  votcd  to  the  cve  of  Waterloo.     More  famous  still 

Waterloo 

are  Byron's  immortal  stanzas  in  the  third  Canto  of 

"Childe  Harold's  Pilgrimage": 

• 

There  was  a  sound  of  revelry  by  uiglit, 
And  Belgium's  capital  had  gather'd  then 
Her  Beauty  and  her  Chivalry,  and  bright 
The  lamp  shone  o'er  fair  women  and  brave  men; 
A  thousand  hearts  beat  happily;  and  when 
Music  arose  with  its  voluptuous  swell, 
Soft  eyes  look'd  love  to  eyes  which  spake  again, 
And  all  went  merry  as  a  mamage-beli ; 
But  hush!  hark!  a  deep  sound  strikes  like  a  rising  knelll 

Did  ye  not  hear  it? — No;  'twas  but  the  wind, 
Or  the  car  rattling  o'er  the  stony  street; 
On  with  the  dance!  let  joy  be  unconfined; 
No  sleep  till  morn,  when  Youth  and  Pleasure  meet 
To  chase  the  glowing  Hours  with  flying  feet — 
But,  harkl — that  heavy  sound  breaks  in  once  more. 
As  if  the  clouds  its  echo  would  repeat; 
And  nearer,  clearer,  deadlier  than  before! 
Arm  I     Arm!  it  is — it  is — the  cannon's  opening  roarl 


1815  June  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  673 

Within  a  windovv'd  niche  of  that  high  hall 
Sale  Brunswick's  fated  chieflaiu;  he  did  hear 
That  sound  the  first  amidst  the  festival, 
And  caught  its  tone  with  Death's  prophetic  ear; 
And  when  they  smiled  because  he  deera'd  it  near, 
His  heart  more  truly  knew  that  peal  too  well 
Which  stretch'd  his  father  on  a  bloody  bier, 
And  roused  the  vengeance  blood  alone  could  quell: 
He  rush'd  into  the  field,  and,  foremost  fighting,  fell. 

Ah !  tlien  and  there  was  hurrjnng  to  and  fro, 
And  gathering  tears,  and  trembhiigs  of  distress, 
And  cheeks  all  pale,  which  but  an  hour  ago 
Blush 'd  at  tiie  praise  of  their  own  loveliness; 
And  there  were  sudden  partings,  such  as  press 
The  life  from  out  young  hearts,  and  choking  sighs 
Whicli  ne'er  might  be  repeated;  who  could  guess 
If  ever  more  snould  meet  those  mutual  eyes, 
Since  upon  night  so  sweet  such  awful  morn  could  rise? 

And  there  was  mounting  in  hot  haste:  the  steed. 
The  mustering  squadron,  and  the  clalteiiug  car, 
Went  pouring  forward  witli  impetuous  speed. 
And  swiftly  forming  in  the  ranks  of  war; 
And  the  deep  thunder  peal  on  peal  afar; 
And  near,  the  beat  of  the  alarming  drum 
Roused  up  the  soldier  ere  the  morning  star; 
While  ihrong'd  tiie  citizens  with  terror  dumb, 
Or  whispering,  with  white  lips — "The  foe!     They  come} 
they  come!" 

Last  noon  beheld  them  full  of  lusty  life, 
Last  eve  in  Beauty's  circle  proudly  gay; 
The  midnight  brought  the  signal-sound  of  strife, 
The  morn  the  marshalling  in  arms, — the  day 
Bai tie's  magnificently-stern  array! 
Tlie  thunder-clouds  close  o'er  it,  which  when  rent 
The  eaith  is  cover'd  thick  with  other  clay. 
Which  her  own  clay  shall  cover,  heap'd  and  pent. 
Rider  and  horse, — friend,  foe, — m  one  led  burial  blenti 

During  the  night  of  June  15,  Wellington  learned 
of  the  defeat  of  the  Prussians,  and  that  they  were 
falling  back:  to  Wavre.     As  this  exposed  the  British 


574  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  June  181« 

flank,  Wellington,  too,  ordered  a  retreat  through 
retreat  Genappe,  with  orders  to  come  in  touch  with  the 
Prussians.  Throughout  the  17th,  the  British  re- 
treated, followed  closely  by  the  French.  Half  way 
back  to  Brussels,  when  in  line  with  the  Prussians  at 
Wavre,  Wellington  halted  his  army  near  the  valley 
of  Waterloo. 

The  field  of  Waterloo,  or  La  Belle  Alliance,  as  it 
is  called  in  French  and  German  annals,  stretches  not 
quite  two  miles  in  length  from  the  hamlet  of  Hou- 
goumont  on  the  right,  to  the  hedge  of  La  Haye 
Sainte  on  the  left.  The  road  from  Brussels  to 
Charleroi  runs  through  the  centre  of  the  field,  less 
than  three-quarters  of  a  mile  south  of  the  village  of 
Waterloo,  and  three  hundred  yards  in  front  of  the 
farmhouse  of  Mont  St.  Jean.  The  British  army  oc- 
cupied the  crest  of  a  range  of  low  hills  crossing  the 
highroad  at  right-angles,  two  hundred  yards  in  the 
„    „  _     rear  of  the   farmhouse  of  La  Haye  Sainte,   which 

The  field  of  -^  ' 

Waterloo  adjoJus  the  road  to  Charleroi.  The  French  troops, 
on  the  other  side  of  the  valley,  were  posted  along 
a  corresponding  line  of  hills,  stretching  on  either 
side  of  the  hamlet  of  La  Belle  Alliance.  The  sum- 
mit of  these  hills  afforded  an  excellent  position  for 
the  French  artillery;  but  an  attack  across  the  val- 
ley would  necessarily  be  exposed  to  a  severe  can- 
nonade from  the  British  batteries. 

Wellington  had  stationed  General  Hill  with  7,000 
men  at  Hal,  six  miles  on  the  right,  to  cover  the 
road  from  Mons  to  Brussels.  Early  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  18th,  he  despatched  letters  to  Louis 
XVIII.   at  Ghent,  recommending  that  monarch  to 


2815  June  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  575 

retire  to  Antwerp  on  the  enemy's  approach.  Blii- 
cher,  during  the  night  of  the  17th,  sent  word  tOpro^fe^ 
Wellington  that  he  would  join  him  at  Waterloo 
with  his  whole  army,  and  that  his  men  might  be 
expected  to  fall  upon  the  right  of  the  enemy  early 
in  the  afternoon. 

Of  the  two  armies  thus  facing  each  other,  the 
French  felt  more  confident  of  victory.  The  Brit- 
ish officers  and  soldiers,  after  the  manner  of  their 
kind,  despised  their  allies.  Wellington  himself 
ordered  his  Dutch  troops  out  of  the  line  of  battle, 
remarking  wrathfully,   "  'Tis  the  worst  army  that  weiiin^on 

doubtful 

ever  was  got  together."  Napoleon  had  reason  to 
expect  that  the  English  woald  give  him  a  hard  tus- 
sle. "The  British  infantry  are  the  very  devil  to 
fight!"  said  Foy  on  the  morning  of  the  battle;  and 
Soult,  too,  with  his  bitter  memories  of  Spain,  uttered 
a  note  of  warning:  "Sire,  I  know  these  English, 
they  will  die  on  the  ground  on  which  they  stand 
before  they  lose  it."  But  Napoleon  knew  that  he^XJfj,"^ 
had  the  advantage  of  numbers,  and  counted  es- 
pecially on  the  great  strength  of  his  artillery  and 
cavalry.  Moreover,  he  believed  Bliicher  to  be  thor- 
oughly beaten,  and  did  not  think  that  the  Prussians 
would  prove  so  troublesome  to  Grouchy  that  he 
could  not  count  on  the  support  of  Grouchy's  35,000 
men.  He  was  borne  up,  too,  by  a  strong  belief 
in  the  unfailing  superiority  of  his  own  military 
genius. 

It  was  a  beautiful  June  day,  after  a  wet  and  chilly 
night.  As  the  ground  was  still  too  soggy  for  rapid 
movements  of  artillery  or  cavalry  evolutions  on  any 


676  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  June  1815 

grand  scale,  Mapoleon  put  off  the  fight  to  hold  a 
final  grand  review  of  all  his  hosts  in  battle  array. 
On  the  plain  of  Waterloo  the  crops  that  Sunday 
morning  stood  high,  with  bright  patches  of  pale 
green  rye  and  red  clover.  On  the  other  side  of  the 
vale,  the  British  soldiers,  lying  cramped  in  their 
damp  ditches,  could  see  the  sun  glittering  on  Napo- 
leon's martial  columns,  and  heard  the  stirring  strains 
of  the  "Marseillaise"  wafted  across  the  waving 
wheat  fields.  When  the  men,  at  last,  heard  the 
roar  of  a  hundred  thousand  French  throats  yelling 
"Vive  I'Empereur!"  a  stir  ran  through  their  ranks. 
The  auxiliaries  appeared  ill  at  ease.  "The  mere 
name  of  Napoleon,"  said  Wellington,  "has  beaten 
them  before  they  have  fired  a  shot." 
Opening  of     Shortly  before  noon  the  battle  began  with  heavy 

the  battle  -^  o  j 

artillery  fire  from  the  heights  of  La  Belle  Alliance. 
Immediately  Eeille's  corps,  6,000  strong,  advanced 
on  Hougoumont.  As  the  column  swept  down  the 
slope  a  mass  of  French  tirailleurs  skirmished  into 
the  adjoining  wood,  and  thence  up  to  the  orchard 
and  garden  of  the  chateau  where  the  British  lay. 
They  were  picked  off  from  the  windows  of  the  cha- 
teau, while  the  British  Light  Foot  Guards,  seeking 
shelter  in  the  hollow  of  a  road  between  the  orchard, 
and  the  house,  from  that  line  of  vantage  repulsed 
all  French  attacks.  Muffling,  the  Prussian  aide-de- 
camp on  the  British  general  staff,  doubted  whether 
taJceof  Hougoumont  could  hold  out,  but  Wellington  ex- 
mont°"  pressed  confidence  in  MacDonnell,  the  Scotch  officer 
in  charge  of  that  point. 

While  the  fight  raged  in  that  quarter,  the  French 


1815  June  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  677 

artillery  played  havoc  with  the  British  batteries. 
The  gunners  had  been  ordered  to  hold  their  lire  for 
a  general  attack.  About  two  in  the  afternoon  a 
dark  mass  was  seen  moving  in  the  woods  of  Ohain. 
The  French  officers  turned  their  glasses  on  it,  and 
expressed  a  joyful  hope  that  it  was  Grouchy's 
corps.  A  reconnoitring  party  returned  with  the 
unwelcome  news  that  they  were  Prussians.  Napo- 
leon instantly  despatched  a  part  of  Ney's  troops  to 
hold  them  in  check,  while  he  made  haste  to  launch 
his  great  infantry  attack.  Seventy-two  guns  pre- 
pared the  way  with  a  torrent  of  grape  shot. 
D'Erlon  with  four  divisions  of  sixteen  thousand 
men  flung  himself  against  La  Haye  Sainte  on  the 
British  left  and  drove  in  the  thin  red  line  of  Pic- 
ton's  division  which  had  already  suffered  heavy 
losses  at  Quatre-Bras.  A  Dutch-Belgian  brigade 
took  to  its  heels  and  swept  through  the  British 
ranks  followed  by  their  curses.  Baring's  Hanove- 
rians, on  the  other  hand,  stoutly  held  their  ground. 
At  last,  under  the  terrific  fire  of  the  French  gunners 
the  farmhouse  of  La  Haye  Sainte  caught  fire,  justL^Haye 
as  the  French  attack  had  spent  its  force.  Lord 
Uxbridge  with  his  cavalry  fell  upon  the  French 
infantry  and  threw  them  in  disorder  before  the 
cuirassiers,  skirmishing  on  the  other  side  of  a  sand 
pit,  could  form  for  a  counter  charge.  Picton's  in- 
fantry followed  with  a  bayonet  charge  and  regamed 
the  crest.  There  they  were  swept  by  such  deadly 
artillery  fire  that  the  men  flung  themselves  fiat  on 
their  faces.  Picton  was  killed.  "Hard  poundiag^n^" 
this,  gentlemen,"  said  Wellington,  as  he  rode  past 
XLKth  Century— Yol.  1—25 


678  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  June  1815 

his  prostrate  lines.  "Let  us  see  who  will  pound  the 
hardest." 

By  this  time  the  fight  around  Hougoumont  had 
reached  a  crisis.  The  upper  story  of  the  chateau 
was  riddled  with  solid  shot  and  the  roof  caught 
fire.  From  the  blazing  windows  the  Light  Guards 
continued  to  pour  their  unintermittent  fire,  while 
the  wounded  lying  behind  them  were  suffocated  in 
the  smoke.  Once,  the  French  broke  in  the  main 
gateway,  but  were  bayoneted  on  the  threshold. 
MacDonnell,  who  was  of  herculean  proportions,  with 
MacDon-    a  clustcr  of  his  officers,  by  sheer  force  shut  the  gate 

nell's  feat 

again  in  the  face  of  the  frantic  Frenchmen.  Mer- 
cer, an  eye-witness,  declared  later  that  around  this 
spot  the  dead  were  heaped  up  as  thick  as  on  the 
great  breach  of  Badajos. 

At  four  in  the  afternoon,  when  the  British  line 
was  held  to  be  sufficiently  shaken  by  the  prolonged 
artillery  fire,  Napoleon  meant  to  let  Ney  try  a 
cavalry  charge  en  masse.  Ney  moved  his  columns 
in  advance  of  the  Emperor's  orders, 
ticf  ates  Through  a  gap  of  barely  one  thousand  yards  came 
twenty-one  squadrons  of  cuirassiers  and  nineteen 
squadrons  of  lancers,  trotting  down  the  slope. 
Along  the  British  lines  sounded  the  bugle  call, 
"Prepare  to  receive  cavalry!"  The  men  formed 
in  scjuares,  or,  rather,  oblongs,  behind  the  crest 
of  the  hill,  while  the  horse  artillery  came  dashing 
up  and  unlimbered  on  the  ridge  before  them.  The 
gunners  were  ordered  to  keep  up  an  incessant  fire 
of  grape  and  canister  until  the  French  horsemen 
should  be  all  but  upon  them.     Then  they  were  to 


orders 


»i5June  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  579 

run  for  shelter  under  the  bayonets  of  the  nearest 
square. 

At  an  even  gallop  the  French  squadron  came 
thundering  up  the  slope — a  solid  front  of  flashing  ^i^  ^ 
swords  and  gleaming  breast-plates.  Within  a  thou-  ch^g7 
sand  feet  from  the  British  guns  they  put  spurs  to 
their  horses  and  charged  madly  forward  at  full 
speed.  As  they  beheld  the  gunners  running  for 
life,  and  saw  the  smoke  drifting  over  a  long  row  of 
field-pieces  standing  silent  and  deserted,  the  French 
cuirassiers  became  drunk  with  the  rapture  of  vic- 
tory. Rising  in  their  stirrups  at  mid-career,  they 
broke  into  a  hoarse  cheer.  The  fate  of  a  few  un- 
fortunate squadrons  that  crashed  into  a  sunken  road 
traversing  the  field  was  scarcely  heeded. 

As  the  horsemen  swept  over  the  ridge  through 
the  abandoned  batteries,  they  beheld  the  double 
line  of  British  squares.  At  the  same  time  they  re- 
ceived a  volley  full  in  the  face,  and  the  leading 
squadron  went  down,  man  and  horse.  The  mad- 
dened steeds  of  the  following  squadrons  swerved 
sidewise  and  swept  past  the  flanks  of  the  hollow 
squares.      They    were    instantly    charged    by    the  French 

'■  ''  J  CI  J  horsemen 

British   cavalry  stationed  behind  the  squares.     In  repulsed 
confusion    the   French    went    galloping   back  over 
the  slope. 

The  scattered  squadrons  reformed  in  the  valley. 
Ney,  who  had  taken  his  ill  success  at  Quatre-Bras 
deeply  to  heart,  called  in  the  whole  of  Kellermann's 
division — thirty-seven  squadrons;  eleven  of  cuiras- 
siers, six  of  carbineers,  and  the  Red  Lancers  of  the 
Guard.     Thus  enforced,  the  French  charged  again. 


580  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  June  181S 

The  same  scenes  were  enacted  once  more.  The 
gunners  stood,  by  the  guns  until  the  last  moment, 
and  the  British  squares  stood  immovable,  sending 
volley  after  volley  into  the  demoralized  horsemen. 
Occasionally  some  French  leader  would  succeed  in 
riding  home  to  the  very  bayonets,  there  to  discharge 

Charge  on  ]^\q  pistol  iuto  the  face  of  some  British  fusilier,  but 
as  a  rule  the  horses  refused  to  run  into  the  fringe  of 
steel.  From  four  until  six  o'clock  these  scenes  were 
repeated.  The  French  rode  up  again  and  again, 
through  the  batteries  and  around  the  squares — "For 
all  the  world,"  to  quote  Wellington's  words,  "as 
if  they  owned  them."  As  the  horsemen  reappeared 
over  the  crest  of  the  hill  the  British  infantry,  level- 
ling their  muskets,  would  mutter  scornfully,  "Here 
come  those  fools  again!"  and  let  them  have  it.  At 
last  the  horses  themselves  were  so  worn  out  that 
they  could  only  be  brought  up  on  the  trot.  The 
British  were  careful  to  hold  their  fire  until  their 
assailants  came  within  pistol  shot.  "The  English 
squares  and  the  French  squadrons,"  said  Lord  An- 
glesby,  "seemed  hardly  to  take  notice  of  each 
other." 

For  two  hours,  15,000  French  horsemen  made 
thirteen    distinct   charges   on    the   British   squares, 

Mercer's     but  the  British  line  of  battle  remained  unbroken. 

description  ....  i>     i        ^    i 

One  of  the  most  realistic  pictures  of  the  nght  at 
this  stage  is  given  by  Captain  Mercer,  in  command 
of  a  battery  of  horse  artillery.  Mercer  was  on  the 
extreme  British  right  during  the  first  parts  of  the 
battle,  and  only  got  occasional  glimpses  of  the  ridge 
where  the  fight  was  raging — intermittent  visions  of 


»l5June  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  581 

French  cavalry  riding  in  furious  charges,  and  aban- 
doned British  batteries  with  guns,  muzzle  in  air, 
against  the  background  of  gray  and  whirling  smoke. 
About  three  o'clock,  in  the  height  of  the  cavalry 
struggle,  Fraser,  who  was  in  chief  command  of  the 
horse  artillery,  galloped  down  the  reverse  slope  to 
Mercer's  battery,  his  face  black  with  powder,  his 
uniform  torn.  He  brought  the  battery  at  full  gallop 
to  the  central  ridge,  explaining  as  they  rode  Wel- 
lington's orders,  that,  wben  the  French  cavalry 
charged  home,  Mercer  and  his  men  should  take 
refuge    under  the   bayonets  of  the  nearest  square. 

As  they  neared  the  crest  on  a  gallop,  Mercer  de- 
scribes the  humming  of  the  bullets  as  of  "innumer- 
able gnats  filling  the  air."  Through  the  smoke,  a 
few  hundred  yards  ahead,  were  the  French  squad- 
rons, coming  on  a  gallop.  Mercer's  guns  were 
swung  around,  unlimbered,  and  fired  with  breath- 
less speed.     The  French  cuirassiers  still  came  on. 

"They  moved  in  profound  silence,"  writes  Mercer, 
and  the  only  sound  that  could  be  heard  from  them, 
amid  the  incessant  roar  of  battle,  was  the  low,  thun-^^|°^<^ 
der-like  reverberation  of  the  ground  beneath  the 
simultaneous  tread  of  so  many  horses,  through 
which  ran  a  jangling  ripple  of  sharp  metallic  sound, 
the  ring  of  steel  on  steel.  The  British  gunners,  on 
their  part,  showed  a  stern  coolness  fully  equal  to 
the  occasion.  Every  man  stood  steadily  at  his  post, 
"the  guns  ready  loaded  with  round-shot  first,  and 
a  case  over  it;  the  tubes  were  in  the  vents,  the  port- 
fires glared  and  sputtered  behind  the  wheels."  The 
French  column  was  led  on  this  time  by  an  officer  in 


582  A    HISTORY   OF   THE  June  1813 

a  rich  uniform,  his  breast  covered  with  decorations, 
whose  earnest  gesticulations  were  strangely  con- 
of^ey^^  trasted.  with  the  solemn  demeanor  of  those  to  whom 
they  were  addressed.  Mercer  allowed  the  leading 
squadron  to  come  within  sixty  yards,  then  lifted 
his  glove  as  the  signal  to  fire.  Nearly  the  whole 
leading  rank  fell  in  an  instant,  while  the  round  shot 
pierced  the  column.  The  front,  covered  with  strug- 
gling horses  and  men,  was  impassable.  Some  of 
the  braver  spirits  did  break  their  way  through,  only 
to  fall,  man  and  horse,  at  the  muzzles  of  the  guns. 
The  British  guns  were  served  with  astonishing  ac- 
tivity, and  men  and  horses  tumbled  before  them 
like  ninepins.  Where  the  horse  alone  was  killed, 
the  cuirassier  could  be  seen  stripping  himself  of  his 
armor  with  desperate  haste  to  escape.  The  mass  of 
the  French  for  a  moment  stood  still,  then  broke  to 
pieces  and  fled. 
B^fulh*'^  All  this  while  the  French  artillery  played  on  the 
a  '  ^y  British  guns.  At  the  end  of  the  day  Mercer's  bat- 
tery had  lost  two  men  out  of  every  three,  and  of 
200  horses  sheltered  behind  the  ridge,  140  lay  dead 
or  dying. 

Marshal  Ney,  who  was  probably  the  officer  whom 
Mercer  described,  had  one  horse  after  another  shot 
under  him.  With  his  hat  and  coat  riddled  with 
bullets,  he  still  led  charge  on  charge.  "The  mad- 
man!" said  Napoleon,  who  watched  the  struggle 
through  his  field-glass,  "he  is  massacring  my  cav- 

N6V 

desperate  airy!"  All  Ney  could  think  of  was  to  send  for 
new  reinforcements.  "If  we  don't  die  here,  under 
the  English  bullets,"  he  said  to  General  d'Erlon, 


jBlSJune  NINETEENTH    VENTURV  583 

"there  is  nothing  left  for  you  and  me  but  to  lose 
our  heads  on  the  scaffold."  Napoleon,  with  his  eye 
on  the  Prussians,  reluctantly  despatched  his  Guards 
to  help  Ney.  General  Friant  led  forward  the  Old 
and  the  New  Guard.  Ney  gathered  his  squadrons 
for  a  last  charge,  and  flung  himself  on  the  British 
centre.  It  was  a  decisive  moment.  General  Hill, 
who  had  just  joined  Wellington,  said,  "You  may 
be  killed  here,  what  orders  do  you  leave  me?" 

"To  die  on  the  spot  to  the  last  man,  so  that  theweiiing- 

*•  ton  s  deter- 

Prussians  may  be  all  on  the  ground,"  replied  Wei- "^'"^''^^ 
lington. 

As  the  French  Guards  charged  over  the  crest, 
Maitland's  regiment,  which  had  been  lying  fiat  on 
the  ground  where  the  guns  had  stood,  fired  a  point- 
blank  volley  in  the  face  of  the  dense  columns.  The 
first  line  of  the  French  went  down,  and  those  be- 
hind wavered.  General  Friant  was  shot  from  his 
horse.  The  British  cavalry  came  forward  at  a  gal- 
lop. Then  it  was  that  Wellington,  reining  in  his 
horse  behind  the  crest,  gave  the  famous  order:  "Up,  JJu^^ds.and 
Guards,  and  at  them!"  The  British  charged  down*^*^  ^^ 
the  slope.  All  the  squares,  relieved  of  their  terri- 
ble waiting  ordeal  of  the  afternoon,  broke  ranks  and 
charged  forward  with  a  hoarse  yell.  Wellington, 
smiling  grimly,  sent  orders  after  them  that  every 
command  should  move  forward  as  it  stood.  The 
last  brigade  of  fresh  cavalry  was  sent  forward 
to  retake  La  Belle  Alliance.  The  Prussians  at 
last  came  upon  the  battlefield.  Grouchy,  pressing  part  *'^^* 
upon  their  rearguard,  insisted  that  he  had  never  re- 
ceived the  Emperor's  orders  to  join  him.     Buelow's 


584 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE 


June  1815 


Arrival 
of  the 
Prussians 


The  last 
stroke 


FUght  of 
Napoleon 


La  Belle 
Alliance 


corps  of  Prussians,  relieved  of  pressure  in  front, 
immediately  flung  itself  into  the  battle.  The  men 
had  been  floundering  over  soggy  forest  roads  for 
hour  after  hour,  harassed  by  Grouchy  in  their  rear 
and  Ney's  detachments  in  front.  Bliicher  himself 
had  to  urge  his  men  to  do  their  utmost,  crying, 
"Boys,  don't  make  me  break  my  word  to  the  Eng- 
lish 1"  When  Wellington  caught  sight  of  the  first 
Prussian  platoons,  he  shouted  joyfully  to  Muffling, 
"Well,  you  see  MacDonnell  held  out  to  the  last." 

The  united  hosts  of  Englishmen  and  Prussians 
now  pressed  forward  and  completely  overwhelmed 
the  French.  Ziethen's  Hussars  charged  into  their 
broken  infantry.  Napoleon's  Old  Gruard  was  the 
last  to  make  a  stand,  forming  in  solid  squares  long 
after  nightfall.  Called  upon  to  surrender,  they 
made  the  historic  reply:  "La  garde  ne  se  rend  pas; 
elle  mort."  Of  10,000  of  their  men,  only  160  still 
stood.  The  British  and  Prussian  cavalry  finally 
overrode  them.  Long  after  darkness  the  men  were 
still  fighting  hand  to  hand.  Napoleon  escaped  in 
the  confusion.  He  spoke  first  of  dying  on  the  field, 
but  Marshal  Soult  seized  his  white  Persian  charger 
by  the  bridle  and  turned  him  round,  saying,  "Is 
not  the  enemy  lucky  enough  as  it  is?" 

Wellington's  aides-de-camp  on  their  side  tried  to 
draw  him  out  of  the  danger  in  which  he  stood  of 
being  shot  by  both  friends  and  foes.  "What  does 
it  matter?"  said  the  English  general.  "Let  them 
fire  as  they  like,  the  battle  is  won!" 

At  the  farm  of  La  Belle  Alliance,  Bliicher  offered 
his  hand  to  Wellington.     "I  will  sleep  to-night  in 


1815  June  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  685 

Bonaparte's  last  night's  quarters,"  said  Wellington. 
"And  I  will  drive  him  out  of  his  nextl"  replied 
Bliicher.  "Leave  it  all  to  mel"  Favored  bj  a 
moonlight  night,  the  Prussians  so  hotly  pursued 
the  French  that  an  immense  number  of  prisoners 
and  a  vast  amount  of  booty  fell  into  their  hands. 
Napoleon  narrowly  escaped  being  taken  prisoner. 
At  Genappe,  where  the  bridge  was  blocked  by  fugi- 
tives, the  pursuit  was  so  close  that  the  Emperor  was 
compelled  to  abandon  his  carriage,  leaving  his  sword 
and  hat  behind  him.  Bliicher,  who  reached  the  pursuit 
spot  shortly  afterward,  sent  Napoleon's  hat,  sword 
and  star  to  the  King  of  Prussia,  retained  his  cloak, 
telescope  and  carriage  for  his  own  use,  and  gave  up 
all  the  money  found  to  his  soldiery.  The  whole  of 
the  army  stores,  two  hundred  and  forty  guns,  and 
an  innumerable  quantity  of  arms  thrown  away  by 
the  fugitives,  fell  into  his  hands.     As  Lamartine  has 

Lamar- 

said,  "The  defeat  left  nothing  undecided.     The  war^'.^f'^ 

'  °  dictum 

began  and  ended  in  a  single  battle." 

The  battle  of  Waterloo  cost  Wellington  nearly 
15,000  dead  and  wounded.  The  losses  of  the  Prus- 
sians exceeded  7,000  men.  The  full  amount  of  Na- 
poleon's losses  could  never  be  estimated,  since  hisoasuai- 

"•  ties  of 

army  practically  dispersed  after  the  fugitives  crossed  Waterloo 
the  Sambre.     Immediately  after  the  great  battle  the 
Austrians,  under  Schwarzenberg  and  Fremont,  ad- 
vanced as  far  as  Lyons.      The  Prince  of  Wurtem- 
berg  defeated  General  Rapp  before  Strasburg,  and  France 

,      reinvaded 

the  Swiss,  under  General  Bachman,  poured  over  the 
Alps.     France  was  lost. 

Napoleon    reached   Paris  alone  on  the   night  of 


686  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  June  1815 

June  20.  He  burst  in  on  Caulaincourt  at  the 
Tuileries,  but  his  agitation  was  so  great  he  could 
scarcely  speak:  "You  have  heard  the  news?  All 
is  lost.  The  army  did  wonders,  till  they  were  seized 
by  a  panic  terror  and  gave  up  everything.  I^  ey  acted 
like  a  maniac  and  threw  away  my  cavalry.  1  am 
Napoleon's  doue  for,  and  must  have  a  bath  and  two  hours'  sleep. 

return  to  '  ^ 

^^'■'^  I  am  choking."  During  his  bath  the  Emperor  an- 
nounced: "Nothing  but  a  dictatorship  can  save  the 
country.  I  have  no  longer  an  army,  or  a  single 
musket.  My  only  resources  are  the  people.  I  hope 
the  representatives  will  stand  by  me  if  1  convoke 
the  Chambers." 

The  Deputies,  however,  had  resolved  on  a  differ- 
ent policy.     Davoust  and  Lucien  Bonaparte  urged 
a  dictatorship;  but  Fouche,  Lafayette,   Dapin  and 
other  leaders  of  the  popular  party  were  determined 
to  establish  the  absolute  sovereignty  of  the  National 
Opposition  Assembly.    "The  House  of  Representatives,"  moved 
plans         Lafayette,  "declares  that  the  independence  of  the 
nation  is  menaced.     The  Chamber  declares  its  sit- 
tings permanent.     Every  attempt  to  dissolve  it  is 
declared  higli  treason.     The  National  Guards  have, 
for    six-and-twenty    years,    preserved   the   internal 
peace  of  the  country  and  the  persons  of  its  repre- 
sentatives; and   the  means  of  increasing  the  num- 
bers of  that  force  must  be  now  considered."     This 
resolution    was    carried    by    acclamation.      Lucien 
called  Lafayette  an  ingrate.     "I  wanting  in  grati- 
Lafayeite  tudc   to   Napolcoul"    cxclaimcd   Lafayette,    indig- 
himself       nantly:    "Do   you    know   what   we   have  done  for 
him  ?     Have  you  forgotten  that  the  bones  of  our 


i8l5June  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  587 

brothers  and  our  children  everywhere  attest  our 
fidelity  to  him — amid  the  sands  of  Africa — on  the 
shores  of  the  Guadalquivir  and  the  Tagus — on  the 
banks  of  the  Vistula,  and  in  the  frozen  deserts  of 
Muscovy  ?  Three  millions  of  Frenchmen  have  per- 
ished for  one  man,  who  still  wishes  to  fight  the  com- 
bined powers  of  Europe.  We  have  done  enough 
for  Napoleon;  let  us  now  try  to  save  France." 

The  call  for  Napoleon's  abdication  now  became 
universal. 

"I  propose,"  said  Greneral  Solignac,  "that  a  com- J^®^^™-^jj_ 
mittee  wait  on  the  Emperor  for  his  immediate  de- demanded 
cision." 

"Let  us  delay  an  hour,"  cried  Lucien. 

"An  hour,  but  no  more,"  replied  Solignac. 

"If  the  answer  is  not  returned  at  that  time,"  said 
Lafayette,  "I  will  move  for  his  dethronement." 

When  Lucien  went  with  this  commission  to  Na- 
poleon, he  found  him  in  the  utmost  agitation,  debat- 
ing with  himself  whether  to  commit  suicide  or  to 
dissolve  the  Chambers  by  force.  Lucien  told  him 
impressively  that  he  must  either  abdicate  or  dismiss 
the  Chambers  and  seize  the  supreme  power. 

"Dethrone  me!"  said  Napoleon.  "They  dare  not 
doit!" 

"In  an  hour,"    replied   Regnaud  de  St.  Angely,  ^^^^g^y^^i^ 
"your  dethronement,  on   the  motion  of  Lafayette,  ""^*'^"™ 
will  be  irrevocably  pronounced:    they  have  given 
you  only  an  hour's  grace — do  you  hear  ?     Only  an 
hour." 

Napoleon  turned  to  Fouch^  and  said  with  a  bitter 
smile:  "Write  to  the  gentlemen  to  keep  themselves 


588 


A    HISTORY   OF    THE 


July  1816 


Napoleon 
yields 


quiet!  They  shall  be  satisfied."  Hie  then  dictated  to 
Lucien  a  formal  act  of  abdication  in  favor  of  his  son. 
"My  son!"  he  repeated  two  or  three  times,  "my  son! 
W  hat  a  chimera!  No,  no.  It  is  not  in  favor  of  my 
son  that  I  am  abdicating,  but  in  that  of  the  Bour- 
bons.    They  at  least  are  not  prisoners  at  Vienna!" 

Generals  Lafayette  and  Sebastiani,  with  three 
others,  were  despatched  to  the  headquarters  of  the 
allies  to  announce  the  Emperor's  abdication  and  to 
sue  for  peace.  Napoleon  withdrew,  almost  alone, 
to  Malmaison,  where  Queen  Hortense  had  been  liv= 
ing  since  the  death  of  her  mother,  Josephine.  On 
June  25,  he  said  farewell  to  his  officers  and  guards^ 

Bliicher,  in  the  meanwhile,  had  pushed  forward 
without  loss  of  time  and  stood  before  the  gates  of 
Paris.  He  summoned  the  city  to  surrender.  When 
Davoust,  commanding  the  National  Guards,  held 
off  the  capitulation,  and  spoke  of  making  a  last  de» 
fence,  Bliicher  wrote  him  a  curt  note  in  ill-spelled 
German:  "Take  care  what  you  do.  If  we  must 
take  the  city  by  storm,  we  shall  remember  how  you 
dealt  with  Hamburg. ' ' 

On  July  8,  Paris  surrendered  after  a  futile  com= 
bat  in  the  outskirts  at  Issy.     Davoust's  troops  had 

The  city  '^  ^ 

capitulates  tiiree  days  wherein  to  evacuate  the  city.  On  July 
7,  the  Prussians  entered,  and  General  Miiffling  was 
appointed  military  governor.  Bliicher,  who  was 
incensed  at  the  destruction  of  the  stone  column  of 
Rossbaoh,  and  the  disappearance  of  Frederick  the 
Great's  sword  and  watch,  placed  cannons  at  the  im- 
portant points,  and  gave  orders  to  destroy  the  most 
galling  of  French  trophies — notably,  the  Bridge  of 


Bluchef 

before 

Paris 


Return  of 

Louis 

XVUI. 


S815July  NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

Jena.     By  this  time  the  allied  troops  had  come  up, 
and  with  them  King  Louis  XVIII.  and  his  counsel-  louis 
lors,  the  Count   of  Artois   and   Prince  Talleyrand 
Benevento. 

Talleyrand  begged  Count  von  der  Goltz  to  use  his 
influence  for  the  preservation  of  the  bridge.  Blii- 
cher  replied  to  his  entreaties:  "I  will  blow  up  the 
bridge,  and  should  very  much  like  to  have  Talleyrand 
Bitting  upon  it  at  the  time!"  An  attempt  to  blow  it 
up  was  actually  made,  but  was  given  up  when  Wel- 
lington sent  one  of  his  aides-de-camp  to  prevent  it. 
The  King  of  Prussia  himself  rode  to  the  spot  to 

°  Prussian 

remonstrate  with  his  field  marshal.  For  this  andr^pm^is^ 
other  acts  of  interference  Bliicher  openly  upbraided 
the  diplomats:  "I  should  like  you  gentlemen  of  the 
quill  to  be  for  once  exposed  to  a  smart  platoon  fire, 
just  to  teach  you  what  perils  we  soldiers  have  to  run 
in  order  to  repair  your  blunders." 

It  was  at  Wellington's  great  banquet  in  honor  of 
the  surrender  of  Paris,  a  few  days  afterward,  that 
Bliicher  proposed  the  famous  toast:  "May  the  pens 
of  the  diplomats  not  undo  what  we  have  won  with 
the  sword!" 

On  the  same  day  that  Louis  XVIII.  entered  ^^p^_ 
Paris,  welcomed  by  Fouche  and  other  self-consti-  ^[Ibefort 
tuted  spokesmen  of  the  people,  Napoleon  withdrew 
to  Rochefort.  There  various  plans  were  proposed 
for  his  escape.  Lafayette  offered  to  have  him  con- 
veyed to  the  United  States  on  an  American  mer- 
chant vessel.  The  Prefect  of  Marine  put  a  govern- 
ment cutter  at  his  disposal,  wherewith  to  elude  the 
British  man-of-war  in  the  offing.    "Since  the  society 


590 


A    HISTORY    OF   THE 


July  1815 


of  men  is  denied  me,"  wrote  Napoleon  in  a  mawkish 
mood,  "I  will  take  refuge  in  the  bosom  of  nature, 
and  there  I  shall  live  in  the  solitude  which  harmo- 
nizes with  my  last  thoughts." 
Projected  It  was  arranged  that  all  of  Napoleon's  brothers, 
America  as  Well  as  Horteuse,  with  others  of  his  close  family 
circle,  should  meet  him  in  America.  By  this  time 
two  British  cruisers  drew  close  into  the  mouth  of 
the  harbor,  and  it  became  plain  that  it  would  be 
next  to  impossible  to  foil  their  vigilance.  As  a 
last  resource,  Napoleon,  on  July  9,  sent  Las  Casas 
to  Captain  Maitland,  commanding  H.M.S.  "Beller- 
ophon,"  to  sound  him  as  to  his  probable  line  of 
conduct.  The  British  officer  sent  back  word  that 
he  would  stop  any  ship  attempting  to  force  the 
blockade.  In  regard  to  the  granting  of  a  safe  con- 
duct for  the  person  of  the  Emperor,  Maitland  added 
he  had  received  no  instructions,  but  felt  sure  that 
England  would  always  show  Napoleon  the  respect 
due  to  the  high  position  he  held.  After  this  set- 
back a  few  more  days  were  wasted  in  vacillating 
projects.  Napoleon  resolved  to  gain  a  last  point 
BmTelfde°rs  ^7  throwing  himsclf  upon  the  generosity  of  his  vic- 
tors. On  July  14,  he  wrote  to  the  Prince  Regent 
of  England: 


strict 
British 
blockade 


"Your  Royal  Highness — After  being  aimed  at, 
both  by  the  factions  which  divide  my  country  and 
by  the  enmity  of  the  great  powers  of  Europe,  I 
have  finished  my  political  career,  and  now  come, 
like  Themistocles,  to  sit  down  by  the  hearth  of  the 
English  people.  I  place  myself  under  the  protec- 
tion of  their  laws,  which  I  claim  from  your  royal 


1815  Aug.  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  591 

highness  as  the  most  powerful,  the  most  steadfast, 
and  the  most  generous  of  my  enemies." 

The  next  day  he  went  on  board  the  "Bellero- 
phon. "  in  accordance  with  his  request,  Captain 
Maitland  forthwith  set  sail  for  England.  Ten  days 
later  he  brought  his  illustrious  prisoner  into  Plym- 
outh. This  turn  of  affairs  put  the  British  Govern- 
ment in  extreme  embarrassment.  It  was  proposed 
in  the  Cabinet  to  deliver  JSapoleon  to  the  King  of 
France  as  a  state  prisoner,  but  in  the  end  it  was 
determined  to  put  the  outlaw  out  of  harm's  way  on 
the  distant  island  of  St.  Helena,  a  solitary  rock 
lost  between  Africa  and  America. 

Lord  Keith,  the  admiral  in  command  at  Plymouth, 
was  instructed  to  inform  Napoleon  of  his  deporta- 
tion as  a  prisoner  for  life.  The  Emperor  received 
the  news  with  an  impassive  countenance.  When 
he  learned  that  only  three  of  his  old  servants  were 
to  accompany  him,  and  that  he  was  to  be  deprived 
of  all  personal  resources,  he  made  a  motion  as  if  to 
surrender  his  sword.  Lord  Keith  awkwardly  turned 
his  back  and  retired  in  silence.  On  August  9,  the  st  Helena 
"Northumberland,"  bearing  Napoleon  to  his  exile, 
sailed  from  Plymouth.  With  the  deposed  Emperor 
went  Generals  Bertrand,  Montholon  and  Gourgeaud, 
with  their  families,  and  Count  de  Las  Casas.  Eear- 
Admiral  Cockburn,  who  commanded  the  squadron, 
has  left  the  most  interesting  account  of  the  voyage 
and  Napoleon's  frank  disclosures  in  his  conversa- 
tions with  him. 

The  tragic  fate  of  this  greatest  of  modern  con- 


592  A    HISTORY   OF   THE 

querors  made  a  profound  impression  on  Europe. 
NapSlon"  Groethe,  at  Weimar,  said  to  his  friend  Eckerman: 
"They  have  chained  down  another  Prometheus. 
Eor  the  sake  of  a  great  name  he  knocked  half  tlie 
world  to  pieces.  All  romance,  all  illusions,  all 
poetry  are  as  nothing  before  the  brute  strength  of 
such  a  character.  Bat  as  a  hero  he  will  grow  more 
gigantic  in  his  proportions  the  further  he  is  removed 
from  us." 

In  a  similar  strain  is  Victor  Hugo's  immortal 
verse: 

Victor  Angel  or  demon !  thou — whether  of  light 

Hugo's  rj^i^Q  minister,  or  darkness — still  dost  sway 

apostrophe  ' 

This  age  of  ours;  thine  eagle  s  soaring  flight 

Bears  us,  all  breathless,  after  it,  away. 

The  eye  that  from  thy  presence  fain  would  stray 

Shuns  thee  in  vain;  thy  mighty  siiadow  thrown 

Rests  on  all  pictures  of  the  living  day, 

And  on  the  threshold  of  our  time,  alone, 

Dazzling,  yet  sombre,  stands  thy  form.  Napoleon ! 

For  most  Englishmen,  Bonaparte,  with  his  dreams 
of  British  conquest,  was  still  too  threatening  a  real- 
ity to  be  regarded  from  an  abstract  point  of  view. 
For  English  children  the  dread  name  of  "Bony"  was 
still  a  nursery  bogie.  Thackeray  has  reported  how, 
when  as  a  boy  he  was  returning  home  from  India, 
and  his  ship  stopped  at  St.  Helena,  the  black  stew- 
arl  showed  him  a  short,  stout  man  walking  in  a 
garden:  "That  is  he,"  said  the  negro  servant  in 
an  awed  whisper;  "that  is  Bony.  He  eats  three 
live  sheep  every  day  and  all  the  little  children  he 
can  lay  hold  of."  Even  Byron,  cosmopolitan  genius 
that  he  was,  wrote  his  "Ode  to  Napoleon"  in  a 
strain  of  ringing  British  invective:" 


NINETEENTH   CENTURY  59t- 

Tis  done — but  yesterday  a  king  I 

And  armed  with  kinga  to  strive —  ^e°°'* 

And  now  thou  art  a  nameless  thing, 

So  abject — yet  alive  I 
Is  this  the  man  of  thousand  thrones, 
Who  strewed  our  earth  with  hostile  bones? 

And  can  he  thus  survive? 
Since  he,  miscalled  the  Morning  Star, 
Nor  man  nor  fiend  hath  fallen  so  far. 

Ill  minded  man  I  why  scourge  thy  kind. 

Who  bowed  so  low  the  knee? 
By  gazing  on  thyself  grown  blind, 

Thou  taught'st  the  rest  to  see. 
With  might  unquestioned — power  to  save — 
Thine  only  gift  hath  been  the  grave 
To  those  that  worshipped  thee ; 
Nor,  till  thy  fall,  could  mortals  guess 
Ambition's  less  than  littleness. 

Where  may  the  wearied  eye  repose, 

When  gazing  on  the  great ; 
Where  neither  guilty  glory  glows 

Nor  despicable  state? 
Yes — one — tlie  first— the  last — the  best — 
The  Cinchinatus  of  the  West, 

Whom  envy  dared  not  hate, 
Bequeath'd  the  name  of  Washington, 
To  make  men  blush  there  was  but  ouel 

The    same    obvious    conclusion  was   reached   by  washing- 
ton  vs. 
Chateaubriand  in  his  famous  essay  on  "Washing- Napoleon 

ton  et  Bonaparte,"  published  with  his  "Memoires 
d'Outre  Tombe." 

One  of  the  truest  estimates  of  the  great  con- 
queror's character  is  that  of  Gruizot,  who  served 
at  that  time  in  the  French  Ministry  of  Justice.  In 
his  "Memoirs  for  the  History  of  Our  Times,"  Gui-Quizot's 

•'  estimate 

zot  wrote:  "The  genius  and  renown  of  Napoleon 
have  nothing  to  fear  from  the  light  of  history;  jus- 
tice is  done  him  and  will  be  done  every  new  genera- 


594  A    HISTORY    OF    THE  Summer  1815 

tion.  Illustrious  in  the  foremost  rank  among  the 
greatest  conquerors  of  enslaved  humanity,  whether 
subduing,  ruling,  or  organizing,  equally  great  by 
military  genius,  and  by  the  supreme  instinct  of 
national  government,  he  was  constantly  carried 
away  by  selfish  passions  and  desires,  whatever  their 
importance  or  unimportance  might  be,  and  took  no 
cognizance  of  the  eternal  laws  of  duty  and  justice. 
Corrupt,  he  corrupted  others;  despotic,  he  subdued 
minds  and  debased  consciences;  all-powerful,  he 
constantly  made  a  bad  use  of  his  power.  His  glo- 
rious and  blood-stained  traces  remained  soiled  not 
only  by  faults  but  by  crimes.  The  startling  dream 
with  which  he  dazzled  France  has  disappeared;  the 
memory  still  remains,  weakened,  but  always  fatal 
to  our  unhappy  country." 

With  Napoleon  out  of  the  way,  the  rule  of  the 
Bourbons,  in  France,  Spain  and  Naples,  was  car- 
ried along  its  fatuous  course  as  if  the  tremendous 

events  of  the   French  Revolution  and   Napoleonic 
The  ^ 

reb'toration  ^''^  ^^^  never  happened.  After  the  second  res- 
toration of  Louis  XVIII.,  Marshals  Mass^na  and 
Oudinot,  as  spokesmen  of  the  National  Guard,  im- 
plored the  king  to  permit  his  soldiers  to  retain 
their  tricolor  standards.  Fouch^  advised  against 
it,  and  the  king  peremptorily  refused.  "What  a 
race!"  said  Wellington.  "It  is  easier  to  make  them 
accept  a  regicide  than  a  new  idea."  It  was  at  this 
time  that  the  saying  arose:  "The  Bourbons  have 
forgotten  nothing  and  they  have  learned  nothing." 
Thanks  to  the  intervention  of  the  Czar  and  Wel- 
lington, France  at  that  time  was  spared  the  humil- 


1815  Summer  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  69C 

iatioD  of  losing  the  strong  line  of  border  fortresses 
in  Alsace-Lorraine  which  Louis  XIV.  had  wrested  L.'frmfne 
from  Grermany.  Negotiations  concerning  the  de-  "^ 
tails  of  peace  dragged  on  for  months.  Special  ran- 
cor was  created  in  France  by  Bliicher's  levy  of  a 
hundred  million  francs  from  Paris,  and  by  a  general 
demand  for  the  restoration  of  pillaged  art  treasures. 
The  bronze  horses  of  St.  Mark's  had  to  be  sent  back 
to  Venice.  The  sword  of  Frederick  the  Great  was 
kept  hidden;  nor  did  the  Germans  succeed  in  rais- 
ing the  column  of  Rossbach  out  of  the  Seine,  where 
it  had  been  dumped  by  the  Invalides.  On  the  other 
hand,  most  of  the  valuable  manuscripts  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Heidelberg,  which  Napoleon  had  placed 
in  the  library  of  Paris,  had  to  be  restored.  "While 
the  foreign  armies  still  held  the  territory  of  France 
as  a  hostage  for  the  payment  of  a  new  war  indem- demuuies 
nity  of  1,000,000,000  francs,  the  royalists  inaugu- 
rated their  work  of  vengeance.  On  July  24,  two 
lists  of  proscription  were  issued.  They  bore  the 
names  of  nineteen  persons  to  be  tried  for  high 
treason:  notably,  Marshals  Ney,  Grouchy,  Ber- 
trand;     Generals     Lallemand,     d'Erlon,     Lefebvre- generals 

proscribed 

Desnouettes,  Clausel,  Drouot,  Cambronne;  besides 
Lab6doy6re,  Lavalette,  and  Eovigo.  Among  those 
that  were  to  be  banished  were  Marshals  Soult  and 
Bassain.  Davoust  handed  in  his  resignation  as 
Secretary  of  War  and  commander-in-chief  of  the 
Army  of  the  Loire:  "It  is  my  name  that  ought  to 
be  substituted  for  theirs,"  said  he,  "since  they  only 
obeyed  the  orders  I  had  given  them  as  Minister 
of  War." 


596 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE 


Autumn  1815 


BruDe  and 

Bamel 

murdered 


Thus  encouraged,  the  royalist  faction  of  the  popu- 
lace went  to  worse  excesses.  Early  in  August, 
Marshal  Brune  was  murdered  by  a  mob  at  Avig- 
non. The  government  affected  to  believe  that  he 
had.  committed  suicide.  At  Toulouse,  General 
Ramel  was  beaten  to  death  at  the  threshold  of  his 
house.  Eiotous  mobs  burned  the  houses  of  reputed 
Bonapartists  at  Nimes,  and  lynched  several  inno- 
cent persons.  In  August,  Marshal  Ney  was  ar- 
rested at  a  friend's  house.  At  the  same  time, 
Lavalette  and  Labedoy^re  were  placed  before  a 
court-martial.  "L'Independent,"  a  new  journal, 
which  dared  to  publish  an  article  in  their  defence, 
was  suppressed.  Labedoy^re  made  his  last  plea: 
"I  protest  that  there  was  no  express  conspiracy  to 
bring  Napoleon  back  from  Elba.  So  far  as  I  was 
concerned,  I  was  misled  by  some  glorious  memories 
and  some  new  illusions."  It  was  in  vain.  Lab^- 
doy^re  was  condemned  to  death.  His  wife  threw 
herself  at  the  feet  of  the  king,  but  her  appeal  was 
refused:  "I  appreciate  your  sentiments,  madame," 
said  the  king.  "Never  was  refusal  more  painful." 
Lab^doy^re  was  shot  August  19.  On  October  13, 
Murat,  having  been  betrayed  into  the  hands  of  the 
Murat  shot  Bourbons,  was  shot  at  Pizzo  in  Calabria.  When  they 
wished  to  bandage  his  eyes  he  said:  "I  have  braved 
death  too  often  to  fear  it  now."  Then  he  himself 
gave  the  order  to  fire.  He  died  on  the  same  day 
that  Napoleon  landed  at  St.  Helena. 

Ney's  turn  came  next.  His  trial  became  a  cawse 
cel^bre.  A  military  court-martial  refused  to  try  him 
on  the  ground  that  he  was  a  Peer  of  France.    Placed 


Labedo- 
yere  con 
demiied 
to  death 


1815  Autumn  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  597 

on  trial  before  the  Chamber  of  Peers,  Ney,  while 
admitting  everything,  appealed  to  the  amnesty  act 
extended  by  the  allied  powers  to  all  persons  com- 
prised in  the  capitulation  of  Paris.     He  proved  that  ,   . 

^  Ney's  trial 

he  was  within  the  city  at  that  time.  The  Duke  of 
Wellington  and  the  other  ambassadors  of  the  great 
powers  refused  to  interpose  in  the  marshal's  behalf, 
and  Ney's  lawyer,  Dupin,  was  enjoined  from  rest- 
ing his  defence  on  that  point.  Ney  himself  refused 
to  take  advantage  of  the  fact  that  he  was  an  Alsa- 
tian, and  should  therefore  come  under  the  special 
act  of  amnesty  which  sheltered  from  prosecution  all 
the  inhabitants  of  ceded  provinces.  "As  a  French- 
man," he  said,  "I  fought  the  battles  of  France. 
Now  let  me  die  a  Frenchman.  Since  this  is  not  the 
place  to  invoke  the  faith  of  treaties,  I  lodge  myfp'i^ 
appeal  with  Europe  and  posterity."  Late  in  the 
year  the  Chamber  of  Peers  pronounced  the  con- 
demnation of  Ney.  Among  those  that  voted  for 
the  death  sentence  were  several  former  officers  and 
marshals  of  the  empire — his  comrades  in  arms.  The 
young  Due  de  Broglie  alone  made  a  strenuous  pro- 
test, but  in  vain.  At  two  in  the  morning,  Decem- 
ber 7,  the  sentence  was  read  aloud  to  the  marshal 
in  his  prison  cell.  As  the  court  officer  sonorously 
rolled  off  his  titles — "Mardchal  de  France,  Due 
d'Elchingen,  Prince  de  la  Moscova,"  etc.— the  pris- 
oner stopped  him:  "Say  Michel  Ney,  and  soon  no 
more  of  him." 

Madame  Ney  brought  her  children  to  the  prison, 
and  from  there  ran  bareheaded  to  the  Tuileries  to 
throw  herself  at  the  feet  of  the  king.     She  was  re- 


A    HISTORY    OF    THE  A-utumn  I8» 

t 

fused  admittance — "her  demand  not  having  suffi- 
cient object."  While  she  was  still  entreating  an 
audience,  her  husband  was  marched  to  the  entrance  of 
the  Grande  Avenue  de  I'Observatoire.  With  his  face 
to  the  gray  light  of  dawn,  'Nej  himself  commanded 
EadofNey^he  fire:  "JNow,  soldiers,  straight  to  the  heart!" 

After  the  execution  of  Marshal  Nej,  a  story  be- 
came current  that  the  soldiers  had  only  fired  with 
blank  cartridges  and  that  I^ey  had  been  spirited 
away  to  America.  This  story  has  since  become  one 
of  the  legends  of  Louisiana. 

IMow  it  was  Lavalette's  turn.  Though  he  had 
never  sworn  allegiance  to  the  Eestoration,  he  was 
sentenced  to  die  on  the  scaffold.  In  vain  did  Ma- 
dame Lavalette  implore  the  Duchesse  d'Angouleme 
for  interposition  with  the  king.  Even  a  last  re= 
quest  that  he  might  be  shot  like  a  soldier  was 
denied  to  Lavalette.  On  December  20,  Madame 
Lavalette  came  to  bid  farewell  to  her  husband. 
While  alone  together  they  exchanged  clothes^ 
Lavalette,  disguised  in  his  wife's  skirts  and  hold- 
Lavaiette's  i^g  her  handkerchief  to  his  face,  escaped  through 
^^  the  prison  portals.  For  five  days  he  was  hidden  in 
one  of  the  offices  of  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs. 
Sir  Robert  Wilson,  an  English  officer,  finally  got 
him  out  of  the  country.  Sir  Robert  was  cashiered 
for  this  offence.  Madame  Lavalette  as  a  result  of 
these  trying  circumstances  lost  her  reason.  ^ 

In   the  midst  of  this  reign  of   reprisal  the  final  / 
negotiations  of  the  Second  Peace  of  Paris  were  com-/ 
pleted.     On  November  20,    the  treaty  was  signedi 
The  war  indemnity  was  reduced  to  seven  hundrea 


1815  Autumn  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  59S 

million  francs.  Tending  its  payment,  seventeen 
fortresses  on  the  northern  frontier  were  to  be  gar- parfsf  *** 
risoned  by  German  and  English  soldiers.  The  ', 
French  frontiers  were  pushed  in  to  the  old  limits 
of  1790,  Five  of  the  eastern  frontier  forts  were  sur- 
rendered to  the  Grerman  Confederation,  Saarbriicken 
being  taken  by  Prussia.  The  stronghold  of  Hunin- 
gen  in  French  Flanders  was  razed  to  the  ground, 
and  the  French  possessions  in  Savoy  were  ceded  to 
Sardinia.  All  that  Talleyrand's  diplomacy  had 
won  during  the  negotiations  at  Vienna  was  lost  to 
France.  Talleyrand  himself,  realizing  his  impo- 
tence, resigned  his  ministry  before  the  final  con- 
clusion of  peace.  * 

W  hile  the  affairs  of  Europe  were  thus  rearranged 
by  the  powers,  the  American  people  were  striving  acfairs 
to  readjust  their  own  affairs.  Shortly  after  tbe 
shooting  of  a  number  of  American  prisoners  of  war 
in  an  English  prison  at  Dartmoor,  hostilities  with 
England  reached  their  definite  end  on  June  18. 
The  first  peace  society  of  the  world  was  founded 
at  New  York.  The  war  had  left  a  heavy  legacy. 
American  shipping  as  such  was  ruined,  involving j^^.^^^j 
the  ruin  of  the  once  thriving  trade  of  the  New  Ei.g- ^'"'p"'"*^ 
land  States  with  the  West  Indies,  and  almost  all 
foreign  commerce.  Nearly  all  the  banks  through- 
out the  country,  including  the  great  national  bank, 
had  suspended  payment.  The  national  debt  was 
increased  to  $99,833.60.  To  raise  any  revenue 
whatever  the  Federal  Government  levied  taxes  on 
such  personal  property  as  hats  and  caps,  leather 
boots,  gold  or  silver  watches,  and  umbrellas. 


600  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Sununer  1815 

The  work  of  reconstruction  began  at  once  after 
re-elected  the  rc-election  of  Madison  to  the  Presidency.  This 
election  was  the  last  stand  of  the  Federalist  party 
in  the  United  States.  New  England's  opposition  to 
the  recent  war,  culminating  in  the  Hartford  Conven- 
tion with  the  hue  and  cry  against  the  hated  "Blue- 
Lights,"  brought  about  its  political  downfall.  Once 
this  was  accomplished  the  bitterness  of  factional  dis- 
sensions ceased.  The  people  of  New  York  provided 
for  the  construction  of  the  great  Erie  Canal  from 
Albany  on  the  Hudson  to  Lake  Erie.  Kobert  Ful- 
Death  of     ton,  who  died  that  year,  still  had  the  satisfaction  of 

fulton  '  .  . 

seeing  bis  new  steam  ferry  in  operation,  and  wit- 
nessed the  launching  of  the  first  steam  frigate  of 
the  world.  It  bore  his  name.  In  Philadelphia,  the 
great  Fairmount  water- works,  which  supply  that 
city  with  water,  were  brought  to  completion,  while 
the  people  of  Baltimore  were  laying  pipes  and  mains 
to  make  their  city  the  first  municipality  lighted  by 
gas. 

In  the  midst  of  these  labors  of  peace  came  another 
ruffle  o£  war.  The  Barbary  pirates,  little  heeded  as 
they  were  during  the  preoccupation  of  the  recent 
maritime  war,  once  more  grew  troublesome.  The 
Dey  of  Algiers  compelled  Lear,  the  American  con- 
sul, to  pay  a  ransom  of  $27,000,  under  threat  of 
slavery   for   himself   and   all    his   household.     The 

Barbary  , 

''ar  American  Government  paid  over   the  money,    but 

Congress  immediately  followed  the  matter  up  by  a 
declaration  of  war  upon  Algiers.  On  May  19,  Com- 
modores Decatur  and  Bainbridge,  with  a  squadron 
of  nine  ships,   sailed  for  the  Mediterranean.     De- 


1815  Summer  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  601 

catur  arrived  off  Gibraltar  in  June.  Learning  that 
the  "Mashoda,"  an  Algerian  forty-six  gun  frigate, 
was  in  those  waters,  he  set  out  to  find  her.  On 
June  17  she  was  sighted,  and  the  American  squad- 
ron immediately  gave  chase.  Decatur's  flagship, 
the  *'Guerri6re, "  was  in  the  lead,  and  soon  came 
within  range.  The  Moors  fought  with  great  brav- 
ery, and  did  not  surrender  until  the  other  Ameri- 
can ships  brought  their  fire  to  bear  on  them.  One 
shot  cut  the  Algerian  admiral  in  two,  and  thirty  of 
their  sailors  were  killed.  The  "GuerriSre"  had 
three  killed  and  eleven  wounded.  Two  days  later, 
Decatur  captured  an  Algerian  twenty-two  gun  brig  g^g^  g^j^^^ 
after  a  short  but  fierce  fight.  Then  he  set  sail  f or ''"^  ^'^'®" 
Algiers.  The  American  squadron  came-to  off  Al- 
giers, and  Decatur  sent  in  a  demand  for  an  imme- 
diate settlement.  The  Dey  came  in  person,  and  a 
treaty  was  negotiated  on  Decatur's  quarterdeck. 
The  Dey  offered  to  cease  his  depredations  on  Amer- 
ican ships  if  the  United  States  Government  would 
help  him  maintain  his  prestige  by  sending  him  a 
mere  handful  of  gunpowder,  in  semblance  of  trib-  " 
nte.  Decatur  cut  him  short:  "If  you  want  pow- 
der you  will  have  to  take  our  balls  with  it."  Once 
the  Dey  had  come  to  terms,  Decatur  next  called  on 
the  Pasha  of  Tunis,  and  made  him  pay  $46,000  for 
American  ships  in  his  waters  betrayed  to  the  Eng- 
lish during  the  late  war.  The  Bey  of  Tripoli  had 
to  pay  $25,000  for  similar  breach  of  neutrality  and 
to  release  all  Christians  he  held  in  slavery.  Hence-  ^J^^^^^^^ 
forth,  absolute  immunity  was  granted  to  American 
ships  sailing  in  the  Mediterranean.  This  put  an 
XlXth  Century— Vol.  1—26  - 


602  A    HISTORY    OP    THE  Summer  1815 

end  to  the  anomalous  submission  of  civilized  na- 
tions to  the  insolent  demands  of  the  Arab  chieftains 
of  northern  Africa. 

About  the  same  time  that  security  was  thus  re- 
established in  the  Mediterranean,  England  made 
another  great  stride  toward  the  abolition  of  slave 
J^Jl^^o^ of  trading.  Through  Lord  Castlereagh  in  Paris  she 
slave  trade  ^^^  ^^^  ^j^-g  ^^^  couscnt  of  all  Christian  nations, 
excepting  only  Portugal  and  Spain.  The  Prince  Re- 
gent of  Portugal,  with  whom  the  interests  of  Brazil, 
just  elevated  to  the  rank  of  a  kingdom,  counted  for 
more,  now,  than  those  of  the  mother  country,  agreed 
to  restrict  Brazil's  thriving  slave  trade  to  southern 
waters.  The  statesmen  of  Spain  obstinately  de- 
clined the  English  demands  for  reform  on  this 
score.  They  justified  their  refusal  by  the  fact  that 
Great  Britain  herself  did  not  suppress  her  own 
slave  trade  until  all  her  colonies  had  been  supplied 
with  slaves  far  beyond  the  possibilities  of  her  colo- 
nial rivals. 

With  this  question  thus  temporarily  settled,  Met- 
ternich  set  himself  to  weld  together  the  pieces  of 
the  old  German  empire  in  the  new  form  of  a  Ger- 
manic confederation.  The  terms  were  finally  settled 
at  Vienna,  in  June.  The  confederation  consisted  of 
thirty-five  States,  thirty-one  of  which  were  ruled 
by  sovereigns.  The  States  comprised  the  empire 
of  Austria;  the  five  kingdoms  of  Prussia,  Bavaria, 
Saxony,  Hanover,  and  Wurtemberg;  the  electorate 
of  Hesse-Cassel;  the  seven  grandduchies — Baden, 
Hesse-Darmstadt,  Mecklenburg-Schwerin,  Mecklen- 
burg-Strelitz,    Saxe-Weimar,    Luxemburg,  and  01- 


1815  Winter  NINETEENTH   CENTURY  603 

denburg;  the  eight  duchies — Holstein  with  Lauen* 
burg,  Brunswick,  Nassau,  Saxe-Meiningen,  Saxe- 
Coburg-Gotha,  Saxe-Altenburg,  Aahalt-Dessau, 
and  Anhalt-Bernberg;  the  five  principalities— 
Schwartzburg-Sonderhausen,  Schwartzburg-Rudol- 
stadt,  Schaumburg-Lippe,  Lippe-Detmold,Waldeck:; 
the  four  dominions  of  Reuss,  Hesse  -  Homburg, 
Neuburg,  and  Lichtenstein  ;  and  the  four  free 
cities  of  Hamburg,  Bremen,  Luebeck  and  Frank- 
fort. The  confederation,  as  now  constituted,  had 
sufficient  cohesive  force  to  endure  for  two  genera- 
tions. Yet  it  fell  so  wofully  short  of  the  more 
progressive  ideals  of  German  unity  that  the  "good 
old  times"  of  the  Bund  have  become  a  by- word 
of  outraged  German  liberalism. 

Friedrich  Anton  Mesmer,  the  originator  of  the 
pseudo-science  known  as  Mesmerism,  died  during  Death  of 
this  year  in  Meersburg.  His  alleged  discoveries  in 
animal  magnetism  and  planetary  influences,  at  the 
close  of  the  previous  century,  had  made  a  great 
stir.  Through  the  agency  of  a'  "  Secret  Society 
of  Harmony,"  founded  by  himself,  Mesmer's  pre- 
tended achievements  gained  such  vogue  that  he 
was  able  to  amass  a  fortune  of  400,000  francs.  This 
he  lost  again,  owing  partly  to  the  formal  condemna- 
tion of  his  teachings  by  the  French  Academy;  but 
he  protested  so  vigorously  that  the  French  Govern- 
ment eventually  granted  him  an  annual  pension 
of  3,000  francs.  Mesmer's  discoveries,  while  they 
gave  a  certain  impetus  to  the  use  of  electricity 
in  medicine,  proved  of  no  permanent  value. 

It  was  late  in  the  year,  during  the  interval  pre- 


/ 


d04  A    HISTORY   OF    THE  Winter  1816 

ceding  the  conclusion  of  the  second  treaty  of  Paris, 
that  the  singular  compact  was  made  between  the 
sovereigns  of  the  Continent  which  has  come  to  be 
known  as  the  "Holy  Alliance."  It  originated 
with  Czar  Alexander.  This  monarch,  though  loose 
enough  in  his  private  morals,  was  deeply  imbued 
with  religious  feeling.  At  this  time  in  particular  he 
had  fallen  under  the  sway  of  Mme.  Kriidener,  who 
dabbled  in  mysticism.  With  her  help  he  drew  up 
a  document  which  read  like  a  profession  of  faith, 
and  this  he  presented  to  his  ^  llow-sovereigns.  The 
Holy         King  of  Prussia,  who  was  a  simple-minded  ruler, 

Allien  C6 

signed  the  paper  in  good  faith.  Emperor  Francis, 
who  had  the  comfortable  sense  of  humor  of  the 
Hapsburgs,  said  that  if  the  paper  related  to  doc- 
trines of  religion,  he  must  refer  it  to  his  father 
confessor,  if  to  matters  of  State,  to  his  Prime  Min- 
ister, Metternich  pronounced  the  paper  a  mere 
mass  of  verbiage,  but  advised  his  master  to  sign  it 
for  policy's  sake.  The  treaty  practically  renewed 
the  pledges  of  Chaumont,  though  couched,  this  time, 
in  the  terms  of  a  religious  declaration.  Article  11. 
of  the  treaty  is  a  characteristic  instance: 

"The  three  Princes  unite  in  confessing  that  the 
Christian  People,  of  whom  they  and  their  nations 
form  a  part,  have  in  reality  no  other  Sovereign  but 
Him  to  whom  alone  belongs  Almighty  Power;  to 
wit,  God  the  Father,  our  Divine  Saviour  Jesua 
pjoug  Christ,  the  Holy  Ghost  and  the  Word.  Their  Maj- 
deciaration  Qgjjgg  |.|^gj,gf Qj,g  recommend  to  their  peoples  to  for- 
tify themselves  each  day  in  the  principles  and 
practice  of  those  duties  which  the  Divine  Saviour 
has  enjoined  on  Mankind." 


1815  Winter  NINETEENTH    CENTURY  605 

Since  the  King  of  England  was  mentally  unfit, 
an  invitation  to  join  the  Holy  Alliance  was  issued 
to  the  Prince  Eegent.  That  frivolous-minded  prince,  / 
engrossed  as  he  was  with  his  marital  troubles  with 
Princess  Caroline,  left  the  matter  to  Lord  Castle- 
reagh,  who  was  then  in  Paris.  "The  fact  is,"  Lord 
Castlereagh  wrote  home,  "the  Russian  Emperor's 
mind  is  not  quite  sound."  Apart  from  that,  he  and 
the  Prince  Regent  were  well  aware  that  the  consti-       1 

England 

tutional  form  of  their  government  would  not  permit  "ot  a  party 
them  to  commit  England  to  such  a  compact  without 
the  sanction  of  Parliament.     Accordingly,  Alexan- 
der had  to  content  himself  with  a  personal  letter      . 
from  the  Prince  of  Wales  containing  a  cordial  ap-      | 
proval  of  his  good   tenets.     The  Bourbon  rulers  of 
France,   Naples,  Sardinia  and  Spain  subscribed  to 
the  treaty  as  a  matter  of  course,  as  did  the  Prince     » 
Regent  of  Sweden,  Bernadotte.     The  Alliance,   as 
finally  concluded,  comprised  all  the  principal  rulers ^h^  pop, 
of  Europe,  with  none  left  out  but  the  King  of  Eng-  ® '*'" 
land,  the  Pope,  and  the  Sultan  of  Turkey.  .' 

Sach  was  the  famous  Holy  Alliance,  which, 
though  conceived  by  a  liberal-m.inded  enthusiast 
in  a  desire  for  universal  peace  and  brotherhood, 
was  destined  to  fall  under  general  execration,  as 
an  unholy  league  for  the  suppression  of  the  high- 
est human  liberties  and  free  thought. 


^ 


Qj^^^diWEVERS] 


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